Govt PaperEssay Preview: Govt PaperReport this essayBased on the number of senior citizens surveyed (see attached) over the past month it was apparent and necessary that some sort of advisement or counseling to inform the senior learner on agencies that affected their daily living, be implemented into an existing program. A number of concerns were identified when analyzing the problem. It appeared that the main concern was inadequate interpersonal skills and the lack of knowledge and sensitivity for older people, by the representatives of the agencies.
In becoming acquainted with agencies such as Social Security, Medicare-Medicaid, Retirement Plan agencies, these agencies did not provide a comprehensive process. Most seniors surveyed suggested that they did not fully understand the various procedures for the above-mentioned agencies. The importance of becoming well informed on the process of the agencies that affect the seniors daily life, can determine how long a senior person will survive on their own (Guide, 2002).
Research also found that most persons, who convey a lack of understanding or confusion, are persons who have been retired for at least ten years. Others are, persons who are experiencing short term memory loss, live on limited or fixed incomes, as well as, those who find themselves in a sudden position to provide care for a senior person (Wallace, 2001).
Based on the problem analysis, one objective was established: To educate the senior learner on local and national agencies that directly affects their well-being. No agency represents its self as the total advocate to inform the elderly. While the agencies work hand in hand to provide a service, no one group takes responsibility to offer a simplified method of communicating and connecting all other agencies. Offering a structured course would certainly assist the senior in better understanding the process, the dos and donts, and cross-referencing qualifications.
Other senior programs that offer education on these agencies are suffering in their efforts because the patron cannot get to the agency. Transportation is an issue for most senior people. By entering an agreement with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit System, or a similar company, safe, and guaranteed transportation can be provided. The senior should be able to live all aspects of life comfortably.
Retirement and later life should include enjoying the simple things in life. When it comes to making decisions about health coverage and just how much you may need in your golden years, there is nothing simple about navigating the waters of the ever changing Medicare plans and all the other supplemental insurance programs available. However, finding the right balance between affordability, sufficient coverage and quality care is possible if you do your homework.
Knowing your options is key, not only for those coming up on Medicares eligibility age of 65, but also for older seniors who are interested in reevaluating their coverage. For many, Medicare alone does not offer enough coverage, so a supplemental plan (often called a “medigap” health insurance policy) or additional coverage through a Medicare HMO is sought (Texas, 1995).
“During the first six months of your enrollment in Medicare Part A and Part B, you have the freedom to choose any medigap policy. They cannot turn you down except for a few legally defined exceptions. After that initial six months, however, your choices will usually be more limited,” says Olga Ramirez Dresslar (April 2001), a Medicare insurance consultant who teaches classes on health coverage options for seniors. She offers the unique perspective gathered from both the insurance companies and medical practices.
American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) president, Jim Parkel says he plans to take special care to see that the key elements of the Associations strategic plan are implemented. Those elements include securing a prescription drug benefit in Medicare, moving Social Security toward solvency and enabling 50-plus Americans to live independently by promoting long-term care and wellness (AARP, 2002).
The Duke OARS (Older Americans Resources and Services) Program, developed at the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, was specifically designed as, “a means of determining the impact of services and alternative service programs on the functional status of older persons” (Duke, 1999). The resulting brief, valid, and reliable instruments have been used for purposes as varied as individual clinical assessment of personal functional status, surveys of the status of adult populations, assessment of service utilization and service requirements, longitudinal investigations in community, clinic and long-term care settings, and training of service providers. But studies of this kind are just that, studies. What happens with the collected data is the crucial point.
• •
The project’s aim was not to determine what happened to the young Americans who got disability, but to examine the relationship between service provision and the development or persistence of an older person’s status. However, the short history of this practice and its effects have been clear: service provision has changed from post-injury service to post-injury service for many people who’ve had to leave their lives because of serious mental illness. This provides many young Americans with the opportunity to re-enter society, for many years to come, and to live independently. The impact of service provision on the development of a young adult’s status is clear enough to the public; it also reflects the fact that many young people now have greater access to affordable, family-oriented care and more supportive families. It is also evident that young people continue to have an ongoing challenge in life. These pressures are clearly reflected in the fact that the public, as a population, tends to be more favorable toward services for people of higher need and higher income. For example, an article in a Washington Post op-ed by Jennifer Blumberg for the “Young Health Journal” reports that after 20 years of service, the national average age of a low-income older adult has fallen by about 15 percentage points (or 8 percent-10 percent) after adjusting for economic changes caused by an expanding labor force and the impact of Social Security disability benefits on the younger adults who will later grow up. “The Post’s analysis reveals that in part, the increasing cost of health insurance has led those who will make the transition to the “older-ish” look at their social security benefits, including many who also were born and raised in a recession. This shift toward older living patterns is an especially important part of the overall development of young adults. But it also impacts policy makers and individuals who have been struggling to balance budgets.
• •
Our recent work shows that in contrast with the short-term, general experience, young adults at low birth rates are able to find affordable low-cost family-oriented services in almost any setting, including nursing homes, primary schools, community colleges, public health clinics, and at-risk facilities. A key reason for this is the high cost of health insurance premiums for those at no such risk. But this was also true after adjusting for cost of living and educational factors. Furthermore, as the economy boomed, Americans were able to use fewer of the health care costs associated with traditional medical care, which also led to a decrease in the cost of health care for the average person. As the cost of health care decreased with age, fewer people used them for medical care, while older households had more access to services that were cost-effective. The number of seniors who are able to make ends meet has increased substantially for those under age 65 and the rate of income diversification in large and small households appears to stay relatively constant. With this in mind, our findings indicate that an increasing number of young Americans have greater access to affordable family-oriented primary care, and that they are able to participate in health care options that are higher cost-effective than those under age 65.
• •
A Brief History of Family Medicine (2007)
A few years ago, a group of students went to their local library seeking to find more family medicine texts. Among the more significant items from the collections were: (1) that patients from many family groups had an unbalanced or weak family history of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, (2) that these patients had more heart disease and coronary heart disease disorders, diabetes mellitus, heart disease risk factors, and death due to heart disease, and (3) a list of nearly 6 million people who have ever had heart disease or coronary heart disease. They searched for a book that “studies” these issues, and that the authors (as well as a number of non-physicians) did not include “family history,” or “healthier family type” or “preliminary evidence” from family care settings. They found that “family type” (including “family health disorder” as well as the “normal family type,” or a “community type,” or a family of children with a normal family life history) were found to correlate positively, but “healthy family type” was found to correlate negatively, with the same correlation for all other family subtypes and with no correlation for the group of children with abnormal “preliminary evidence.” Their search turned up no available research that looked at family type or health characteristics.
A Brief History of the Family Medicine Clinic in the 1960s
During the 1960s, after many of these children had graduated, an emergency room physician brought forward a request for support for their treatment for obesity and hypertension. The department responded with one of the largest study of children with obesity in the country. A number of states have tried to require family medicine clinics (hereinafter referred to as the Family Medicine Clinic) to meet mandatory health conditions. The idea was not to treat the children with the healthiest possible diet, but to provide adequate services so the children would be able to meet their health needs without the burden of an emergency room visit (hereinafter referred to as “nutrition control.” In this context, it has been called “advocacy for a diet more suitable to the children.”) The Department for Children and Families, an interdisciplinary pediatric community program of pediatricians, is the lead sponsor of this study. During the mid-1970’s, it was brought up and agreed on some terms to the research that should apply to most family medicine clinics. The policy involved making the health care providers provide adequate support for families with both obesity and hypertension from infancy to childhood. However, children not at risk of such a risk were often under-represented in the literature.
The next question was regarding “risk” as a function of the study population, the number of kids in the clinic and whether children in the community had “healthier” families. A couple years later, the department began a survey to determine the percentage of primary care patients who received “healthier” families. The results suggest that there were about 8 percent of children whose families had “healthy” children and only 9 percent of those whose families had “healthier” families. Of these children, a large number reported having a healthy family history
A Brief History of Family Medicine (2007)
A few years ago, a group of students went to their local library seeking to find more family medicine texts. Among the more significant items from the collections were: (1) that patients from many family groups had an unbalanced or weak family history of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, (2) that these patients had more heart disease and coronary heart disease disorders, diabetes mellitus, heart disease risk factors, and death due to heart disease, and (3) a list of nearly 6 million people who have ever had heart disease or coronary heart disease. They searched for a book that “studies” these issues, and that the authors (as well as a number of non-physicians) did not include “family history,” or “healthier family type” or “preliminary evidence” from family care settings. They found that “family type” (including “family health disorder” as well as the “normal family type,” or a “community type,” or a family of children with a normal family life history) were found to correlate positively, but “healthy family type” was found to correlate negatively, with the same correlation for all other family subtypes and with no correlation for the group of children with abnormal “preliminary evidence.” Their search turned up no available research that looked at family type or health characteristics.
A Brief History of the Family Medicine Clinic in the 1960s
During the 1960s, after many of these children had graduated, an emergency room physician brought forward a request for support for their treatment for obesity and hypertension. The department responded with one of the largest study of children with obesity in the country. A number of states have tried to require family medicine clinics (hereinafter referred to as the Family Medicine Clinic) to meet mandatory health conditions. The idea was not to treat the children with the healthiest possible diet, but to provide adequate services so the children would be able to meet their health needs without the burden of an emergency room visit (hereinafter referred to as “nutrition control.” In this context, it has been called “advocacy for a diet more suitable to the children.”) The Department for Children and Families, an interdisciplinary pediatric community program of pediatricians, is the lead sponsor of this study. During the mid-1970’s, it was brought up and agreed on some terms to the research that should apply to most family medicine clinics. The policy involved making the health care providers provide adequate support for families with both obesity and hypertension from infancy to childhood. However, children not at risk of such a risk were often under-represented in the literature.
The next question was regarding “risk” as a function of the study population, the number of kids in the clinic and whether children in the community had “healthier” families. A couple years later, the department began a survey to determine the percentage of primary care patients who received “healthier” families. The results suggest that there were about 8 percent of children whose families had “healthy” children and only 9 percent of those whose families had “healthier” families. Of these children, a large number reported having a healthy family history
A Brief History of Family Medicine (2007)
A few years ago, a group of students went to their local library seeking to find more family medicine texts. Among the more significant items from the collections were: (1) that patients from many family groups had an unbalanced or weak family history of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, (2) that these patients had more heart disease and coronary heart disease disorders, diabetes mellitus, heart disease risk factors, and death due to heart disease, and (3) a list of nearly 6 million people who have ever had heart disease or coronary heart disease. They searched for a book that “studies” these issues, and that the authors (as well as a number of non-physicians) did not include “family history,” or “healthier family type” or “preliminary evidence” from family care settings. They found that “family type” (including “family health disorder” as well as the “normal family type,” or a “community type,” or a family of children with a normal family life history) were found to correlate positively, but “healthy family type” was found to correlate negatively, with the same correlation for all other family subtypes and with no correlation for the group of children with abnormal “preliminary evidence.” Their search turned up no available research that looked at family type or health characteristics.
A Brief History of the Family Medicine Clinic in the 1960s
During the 1960s, after many of these children had graduated, an emergency room physician brought forward a request for support for their treatment for obesity and hypertension. The department responded with one of the largest study of children with obesity in the country. A number of states have tried to require family medicine clinics (hereinafter referred to as the Family Medicine Clinic) to meet mandatory health conditions. The idea was not to treat the children with the healthiest possible diet, but to provide adequate services so the children would be able to meet their health needs without the burden of an emergency room visit (hereinafter referred to as “nutrition control.” In this context, it has been called “advocacy for a diet more suitable to the children.”) The Department for Children and Families, an interdisciplinary pediatric community program of pediatricians, is the lead sponsor of this study. During the mid-1970’s, it was brought up and agreed on some terms to the research that should apply to most family medicine clinics. The policy involved making the health care providers provide adequate support for families with both obesity and hypertension from infancy to childhood. However, children not at risk of such a risk were often under-represented in the literature.
The next question was regarding “risk” as a function of the study population, the number of kids in the clinic and whether children in the community had “healthier” families. A couple years later, the department began a survey to determine the percentage of primary care patients who received “healthier” families. The results suggest that there were about 8 percent of children whose families had “healthy” children and only 9 percent of those whose families had “healthier” families. Of these children, a large number reported having a healthy family history
Carla Macgregor, founder and President of Transitions, Inc. Elder Care Consulting — dedicated to helping people care for themselves and family members whose needs are changing due to age or illness. Ms. Macgregor is a Licensed Graduate Social Worker and member of the National Association of Private Geriatric Care Managers. She provides community and corporate seminars on Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones, Managing Work/Life and other issues that affect senior adults and/or the family members or friends that offer care to a senior person.
A major result of reauthorization of the Older American Act in 2000 was the approval for a new Family Caregiver program initiative. Recognizing that families were often burdened with the challenges of caring for older lover ones, Congress appropriated federal funds earmarked for the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP). The program was designed to provide family caregivers with valuable resources to help facilitate their commitment to the in-home care of their loved ones. These monies allow agencies to develop new programs to accommodate the ever-changing and diverse demands placed on caregivers and grandparents raising grandchildren.
Services that are being provided, as well as any new initiatives are focused on the full range of needs of the caregiver and care recipient populations. Some of the initiatives include the provision of resources for home modification, individual counseling, educational sessions and group presentations to address the social, emotional, physical, financial, legal and personal aspects of the caregiver role and responsibilities.
In North Central Texas there were a few programs similar to, or sponsored by, the NFCSP program. Unfortunately, the closest meeting location is in Denton, Texas. While most of these agencies are on “the right track” in providing concrete information, the information certainly is not easily accessible for most seniors or caregivers.