Aging Issues for Seniors Living at Home

Elderly_Woman_Window1According to the University of London, people who live alone and have infrequent visitors are very vulnerable to accidents, depression, and an unhealthy emotional state. Sadly, the number of senior living alone has steadily been increasing in the country. Last January, the US Bureau of Census stated that of the US population over 65 years, only 4.2% and about half of those over 95 years old are living in nursing homes. The American Senior Communities claim that by 2040, those aged over 85 is expected to increase threefold to 14.1 million but the option for many families and seniors is not to go into a nursing home but either live in a senior community or avail of home care.

The differences between an assisted living community and getting a professional nurse to visit an elderly or retired senior at home include:

  • With an assisted living community, there is the potential for intrigue, gossip, intrusion into one’s private affairs but this works for some because they do not have children to take care of them at home
  • Staying in an assisted living community has an average span of one year for 35% of those who check in and only about 16% stay over 3 years.
  • At-home care is becoming more popular because seniors like being around things and places familiar to them because it gives them comfort and is less likely to cause them to fall or figure in an accident.
  • Assisted living communities is cost a couple to thousands of dollars depending on the location and amenities.

Many seniors balk at assisted living. In fact, as of 2010 around 11.3 million seniors opted to live alone and did remarkably well. One reason is the better technology and medical care that is available today that makes “85 the new retirement age,” so they say.

While the people in assisted living communities eventually become familiar, they are still strangers if compared to family. This means there is that underlying uneasiness that you will never experience if you live at your home.

However there are still some risks involved with living alone that seniors and their children should be careful about.

  • Improper diet and hygiene care
  • Poor household maintenance
  • Improper monitoring of maintenance medicine and dosage
  • Loneliness and feelings of isolation
  • Delayed payment of bills

All these issues are easy to address with the use of a professional home health service like Nurses Guild. Our nurses and staff can take care of the needs of a senior living alone including keeping them company but without being too intrusive. It’s important to maintain that professional etiquette while staying friendly and hospitable so the senior feels pampered but not suffocated. Using Nurses Guild is the perfect solution because it give due respect to families while providing expert medical care when needed.