| Baby Boomers and Aging Parents Posted: 25 Jul 2010 03:53 AM PDT This is a Guest Post by Vera Kessler of Beth Abraham Family of Health Services.  No one told U.S. baby boomers what life had in store for them. According to a
Pew Research Center report, approximately 9.75 million baby boomers are
simultaneously juggling the responsibilities of caring for both their children
and their aging parents, often while working full time. The result: many are
driven to bankruptcy, others end up with severe emotional and physical
breakdowns and countless more head for divorce court.
What can be done to help?
One solution that’s gaining increasing popularity with people seeking care
for their parents is medical model adult day health care centers (ADHC). ADHCs
are community-based long-term care programs that provide comprehensive health
care services during the day to frail elderly, chronically ill and disabled
adults who are 18 years old or older. Patients are offered nursing care,
personal hygiene care, rehabilitation and social work services, as well as an
opportunity for therapeutic recreation. Transportation is provided to and from
the patient’s home and the ADHC.
In additional to providing daytime respite for family members who need to rest,
run errands or tend to their household, ADHCs give people the opportunity to go
to work so that their income is not forfeited because they have to stay home
and care for a loved one. They also don’t have to miss time from work to
take their loved one to doctor’s appointments, since many ADHCs arrange
appointments with a patient’s primary care physician, as well as
transportation to and from the doctor’s office. Some organizations, like
Beth Abraham Family of Health Services (BAFHS) also provide an evening program
that offers an alternative for family members who prefer to take their respite
from caregiving toward the end of the day, allowing them an opportunity to
spend time with their spouse and children before resuming care for their parent
at night. BAFHS also offers an ADHC program for Alzheimer’s patients that
focuses on cognitive stimulation, music therapy and modified exercise.
With approximately 4,000 ADHCs in the country, a study financed by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation concluded that this number falls seriously short of the
estimated 8,520 centers needed nationwide. And, with an increasing number of
families seeking to keep their loved ones out of nursing homes for as long as
possible, the demand for ADHCs continues to grow.
If you would like to Guest Post for Baby Boomers US, check out our Guest Post for Us page. © Baby Boomers US Blog If you are reading this anywhere other than our RSS Feed Please notify us at admin@babyboomersus.net
You may also want to join the Baby Boomers US Forum for conversations by Baby Boomers about topics important to Baby Boomers!
 Share and Enjoy:          
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting on my blog. I will write back soon!