Nursing Community Advocacy
The elderly are quite a vulnerable group within the society. They are exposed to quite a lot of challenges. However, it is worth noting that these people are quiet important to the society. As such, they should not be left alone to suffer or go through painful experiences all alone. There should be plans to make sure that these people are well catered for and are protected from any form of abuse. The community should at least do something ion order to make sure that these people enjoy their sunset years as it is only good to do so. The essay below looks at the challenges facing the elderly and the suffering they go through. Only then can it be appreciated that they need to be taken care of, to be shown love and affection.
According to Maughan (n.d), the elderly are at risk in relation to their nutritional needs. They need special attention, yet they find it hard to get this attention from those around them. This increases the rates of morbidity and mortality among the senior citizens. Extreme weather conditions are another challenge that they face as observed by Bargnes (2011). He gives an example of an elderly couple who were found dead in their house, and it was believed that the heat waves had led to their death. This is quiet unfortunate, as it can be imagined the trauma that the couple went through before they met their painful death. It hurts to think that there was no one whom they could turn to. The same happens with the cold weather. I have witnessed a case where an elderly drove all the way from NYC and was wandering in the cold without any protective clothing on! This is quite frightening, given that it is known that the elderly have no much energy to resist the cold weather.
During the cold season, the elderly are at times forced to stay indoors for fear of being caught out by the extreme conditions. They feel isolated, lonely and uncared for. Even if they have accidents, it might be hard for anyone to notice. Another disheartening fact is that these people are vulnerable to falls that can cause fractures or even more serious complications such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) as described by Gangavati et al (2009). This simply happens because their homes are not tailored to ensure the safety of the elderly. Since they live alone, they tend to have minor accidents. At times, the effects are aggravated by the fact that there is no one to help them out. As such, if the injury immobilizes them, they can remain in that suffering state for quite a long time. Definitely, this draws a lot of concern. This issue is of particular interest to me since I have seen a lot of such elderly patients at the ER at my work place where I work as a nurse. These issues make me feel so much for the elderly, and that asserts the fact that they are a vulnerable group.
There are various reasons as to why the elderly can be isolated in their society. One of the leading factors could be the fact that at this age, they have lost most of their relatives, friends and even spouses. To make the matter worse, the elderly living within the community might have no one of their relatives living in that locality or even within a short distance from their homes. This implies that they have no one to turn to and they are not recognized by anyone. This brings about much suffering, which needs to be addressed. Some of these elderly needs can be addressed by having adult protective services as suggested by NYC Office of Children and Family Services (2012). The community can also merge efforts and come up with strategies to protect these people. For instance, the Niagara Falls community has a program for helping the elderly people through the John Duke Center (Conde, 2010). This facility tries to provide help and Medicaid services to the elderly in their homes. This is aimed at making sure that they stay within their homes for much longer rather than being put in the nursing homes. The package also comes along with other adult protective services. This is a good example of how a community can embrace and value the elderly people within it.
In cases of emergencies, there should be plans on how the elderly can be taken to safety. For instance, their homes should be modified to allow for easy escape in case of an emergency. There should also be nutritional services which make sure that they do not go without proper meals in case of such an emergency (Maughan, n.d). The main aim is to make sure that the elderly are well protected and cared for before, during and even after an emergency. Another way out can be making sure that the life line is affordable for the elderly (Phillips, 2012). This can make it easy for them to acquire the services and get medical attention in case of an emergency. It also gives them a peace of mind knowing that they have somewhere to fall back to in case of challenges. Availability of services such as meals-on-wheels can also be very good in taking care of the nutritional needs of the elderly (Meal Call, 2012).
The main barrier that needs to be addressed in relation to this issue is lack of information on how to care for the elderly. For instance, the elderly who suffer in their homes have neighbors around them. However, the socialization level in the society is so low that the neighbors do not even know how the elderly living within their neighborhood are. It is for this reason that the mass media keeps on reminding neighbors to check on each other, especially during the extreme weather conditions. This can help save the lives of the elderly. Elderly protective services such as the ones provided by Nicaragua can be very helpful (Nicaragua Social Services, 2012). Plans should be made to have these services all through the week as they are currently not available on weekends.
In order to achieve this, there are some characteristics that a nurse must have. These include understanding, compassion for the elderly and the sympathetic heart that moves them to make a move on behalf of the elderly. The nurse, therefore, has to be competent in communication skills so that it can be easy to convince the audience on the need to look into the issues affecting the elderly. Generally, it is agreeable that the elderly are a vulnerable group and they need much attention. For this to happen, someone has to take action, and this can be done by no one else than the community nurse.
References
Bargnes, K. (2011). Elderly Couple Found Dead in their Home. The New York Times, 26th Oct. 2011. (Attached).
Conde, R. (2010). John A. Duke Niagara Falls Senior Citizen Center. Retrieved on 9th Nov. 2012 from http://www.egovlink.com/public_documents300/niagarafalls/published_documents/PDFs/2feb2010web.pdf
Gangavati, A. et al. (2009). Prevalence and Characteristic of Traumatic Intracranial Hemorrhage in Elderly Fallers Presenting to the Emergency Department without Focal Finding. The American Geriatrics Society, Vol. 57(8). Attached.
Maughan, R.J. (n.d). Hydration, Morbidity, and Mortality in Vulnerable Populations. Nutrition Reviews, Vol. 70(2).
Meal Call Organization. (2012). Meals on Wheels by Any Other Name. Retrieved on 9th Nov. 2012 from http://www.mealcall.org/
Niagara County Social Services. (2012). Protective Services for Adults. Retrieved on 9th Nov. 2012 from http://www.niagaracounty.com/socialservice/adultservices.asp
NY Office of Children and Family Services. (2012). Adult Protective Services. Retrieved on 9th Nov. 2012 from http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/psa/
Philips. (2012). Philips Lifeline. Retrieved on 9th Nov. 2012 from http://www.lifelinesys.com/content/home
