When Ian’s parents were younger, he promised he’d never put them in an old age home. That felt cruel as if he was abandoning them.
Fast forward 30 years and Ian’s dad was living with him, his wife and his 3-year-old daughter.
As Ian’s dad grew older, his need for medical attention and physical assistance increased.
However, work and family obligations made it difficult for Ian to provide his father with the close personal care he required.
After much deliberation, Ian made the heart-wrenching decision he never thought he’d make.
He decided to move his dad to an aged care facility.
Thousands of adult children, like Ian, stress over caring for their aged parents at home or moving them to a care facility that can provide specialised care.
But with over 2500 aged care facilities in Australia, how do you pick the best facility?
To find a care facility where our parents can live with dignity, experts in the field say following these 5 steps can help you locate the perfect place.
1. Take a tour in advance
Many people scramble to find a care facility only after an emergency or hospitalisation. This can lead to rushed decisions and culminate in making poor choices.
2. Listen to how the staff talks to residents
Pay attention to how they greet and interact with residents. Do they take a genuine interest in what they do and they talk to them with respect?
3. Observe how residents pass their time
A good care facility offers plenty of recreational opportunities for its residents. Indoor games, outdoor activities and walks are some things seniors can do to keep themselves engaged.
Just because they have limited abilities does not mean they need to restrict themselves from being cooped up in their rooms. Strike any facility encouraging such behaviour off your list.
4. Enquire about resident choices
Are residents allowed the freedom to make their own choices? For example: when to wake, go out for a walk, or eat their meals?
Treating them as adults and giving them the freedom to make their own choices (within means) can give residents a sense of independence and restore their dignity.
5. Find out the maximum level of care they offer
Does the facility provide advanced care services or do they restrict themselves to washing and grooming? As your parents age, they will require mobility assistance and greater medical care at some point. Facilities that do not provide higher levels of care will require you to move your parents to another home, which is a situation you’d ideally want to avoid.
While there are other factors you’ll need to look into before you decide, of the 5 steps mentioned above, the fifth is perhaps the most important.
With increasing age, seniors demand greater levels of mobility assistance, physical care and medical attention, which many care facilities are ill-equipped to provide. A shortage of trained staff and a lack of technological resources are two common problems that affect aged care facilities.
Moreover, as seniors grow older, they become more fragile, increasing their risk of falls.
Overworked caregivers strive to deliver quality care but often find it difficult to offer timely assistance.
While a delay in routine checkups might not result in a life-or-death situation, not being able to offer immediate assistance in case of falls can prove costly.
Falling is a serious health concern that can cause broken bones and brain injuries in seniors.
Studies show that one in every three people aged 65 years and over falls each year. One in every five require hospitalisation.
Each year, emergency departments treat 3 million older people for fall injuries.
Head injuries and hip fractures (because of falls) result in the hospitalisation of over 800,000 patients a year.
Falls that are not detected in time can even lead to dehydration and hypothermia.
Thankfully, technology in the form of multi-functional, an elderly fall alarm such as eazense Powered by SOFIHUB gives aged care facilities the support they need.
eazense, is a passive, real-time falls detection system for the elderly, based on unique radar sensor technology combined with AI. It can reduce caregiver requirements while ensuring that residents have aid rushed to them when needed.
eazense does not require the resident to wear or do anything.
This elderly fall alarm offers live falls and presence detection across multiple occupants in a room without a wearable and offers the following functionality:
- Constantly tracks body position
- Provides live fall detection (including low-impact falls)
- Detects, records, and logs activity in a room, from live fall detection to irregular movement without using cameras
- Notifies caregivers and central care teams via the Sofihub Cloud Portal, if certain levels of activity are outside of normal routines
eazense allows seniors to live independently and with dignity, knowing that caregivers will rush aid to them in an emergency.
For caregivers, it saves time and reduces the number of unnecessary visits, resulting in significantly lower healthcare costs.
Any aged care facility that makes good use of technology in the form of potentially lifesaving an elderly fall alarm such as eazense, deserves special consideration and should make it to the top of your list.
Visit SOFIHUB to know more about the eazense.