There has been an increase in the number of elderly people joining the nursing homes although the number of those seeking long term services has been declining. This has been attributed to the fact that most aging people who would like to seek these services are low income earners and are unable to raise the required fees for their Medicare hence leading to the government to pass laws that allows the state to acquire the elderly people’s houses or force them to sell them to pay for the health care service expenses.
It is the obligation of the public to come up with alternative approach of caring for these needy citizens. Home and Community-based opportunities have emerged as an alternative for getting long-term care. Creative ideas on the approach of delivering non institutionalized care should be put in place to help avert the problems faced by the elderly people in the nursing homes as well as safeguarding their homes. Through providing assisted living facilities, many elderly people who initially required the services of nursing homes would be in a position acquire them at home.
They help in offering home based care that if well administered would be even better than nursing home services. The elderly person would be in a better position to access some of his or her favorite belongings that would not be allowed in nursing homes (Keigher, 1992, pp. 108-109). Most people who have left their homes for nursing care services have been found to undergo some depression. Creating of care facilities in the home would help change this situation.
It can begin by providing red pillows and lava lamps as well as adding other features that would create comfort to the aging. This may also include the freedom decide what the person wants, eat what he or she wants, when to sleep and wake up as well as having some level of privacy. Some of these efforts have been made not by individual people, but by several coordinated and organized movements that have aimed at reducing the challenges faced by the elderly people due to their inability to meet the expenses incurred in nursing homes.
The state is also obliged to ensure that the concerned aging people receive quality care standards in those established home cares. Some home cares have been found to be even dangerous to put people in. Another policy that would ensure the safety of the aged people’s home if they need to be put in the nursing homes is a properly installed health care insurance policy. This would ensure that there is some level of coverage in insurance for the aged as social security.
This policy should see to it that all people in their early stages of employment starts to pay for their social security benefits that can be used to pay for these bills in the nursing homes when they age. Such kind of scheme would assist the government in paying for these bills and ensuring that all elderly people in nursing home who can not afford to pay for bills have them settled even without touching their property. These policies should be applicable to all since some aging people have been found to get these services while others are denied the opportunities.