Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News

Covering healthcare news in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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5 Ways to Support Senior Patients and Their Families During the Holidays

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5-Ways-to-Support-Senior-Patients-and-Their-Families-During-the-HolidaysThe holiday season is an excellent opportunity to support your senior care patients and their families by preparing them to address any health changes they may notice in their aging loved ones. Holiday gatherings can provide a good backdrop for families to broach these concerns in a gentle, non-confrontational manner.

Here are five ways you can support them in this process.

Provide a Senior Safety Checklist. Remind family members of tips for general safety, such as ensuring the patient has a cane, walker or other proper support if she has difficulty walking; removing throw rugs or other potential tripping hazards; and installing grab bars and no-slip strips where needed. Senior Safety Checklist for added peace of mind.

Connect Seniors with Home Helper Services.  Outlets for Social Engagement. Since social seniors generally have a healthier and more optimistic outlook on life, ask your patients about their friends and encourage the patient’s family members to do the same. If a patient doesn’t have a strong social network, help the family connect her with enjoyable community activities or companionship services.

Connect Seniors with Home Helper Services. Trouble keeping up with housework is common as seniors experience a decline in health. If the family notices the house looking more unkempt than usual during a holiday visit, connect them with senior care services that include light housekeeping.

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The Top Ten Fears of Elderly Adults

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Father-Daughter-WalkingMany of the fears that aging adults experience relate to the biggest challenge they say they face: staying active. According to a recent survey conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care network, seniors worry about the future, beginning with the loss of their independence.*

  1. Loss of independence.
  2. Declining health.
  3. Running out of money.
  4. Not being able to live at home.
  5. Death of a spouse or other family member.
  6. Inability to manage their own activities of daily living.
  7. Not being able to drive.
  8. Isolation or loneliness.
  9. Strangers caring for them.
  10. Fear of falling or hurting themselves.

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Time to Start Talking: Making Parents Part of the Aging Process Now

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Communication_TipDiscussing aging issues, such as living arrangements, finances, dating, end-of-life decisions and driving, early and often can save families years of heartache, tension and even legal battles. Yet, research indicates that about two-thirds of American families put off these conversations, either because they are uncomfortable with the topics or they just don’t know where to start. 1

Statistics show that 34 percent of adults surveyed are conversation avoiders. 2 That is, they haven’t talked about any important end-of-life issues with their parents or children, or they have talked about just one issue. 

To help, the local Home Instead Senior Care office is sponsoring the “40-70 Rule®” program, which includes an Action Plan for Successful AgingSM and other resources to help ease these conversations between adult children and their parents. 

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Providing a Good, Healthy and Happy Culture for Employees

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Bill GammieBy Kathleen Ganster

There may be no other career field where the care and understanding of employees is as important as it is in the health care field. These are the people who are taking direct care of loved ones and family members and what job could possibly be more important than that? So helping health care workers know what is happening in the overall industry and helping them do their jobs as best as they can is imperative. 

Celtic Healthcare knows and understands the importance of this role. And with ever-changing health care policies and regulations, keeping employees abreast of these changes and knowing that they are satisfied can be a challenge. 

“With health care changes happening at such a rapid pace, we feel this focus is even more important – we want our team to know what is happening, but also take the temperature of what they feel about the changes and how to implement them,” said Bill Gammie, Vice President of Value Based Care at Celtic Healthcare.

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A Better Way to Pay for Healthcare

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Bill Gammie

Bill Gammie

By Kathleen Ganster

Keeping the quality in patient care while working with less funding seems to be an overriding theme in health care these days, which makes collaborative efforts between health care providers more important than ever. 

The Affordable Care Act has changed many aspects of healthcare and payment for services is one of those major changes.

“There are numerous payment models that have been put into effect and the changes certainly provide challenges for health care providers. One thing I think most of us in heath care agree upon is that there is a better way to pay for health care,” Bill Gammie, Vice President of Value Based Care at Celtic Healthcare said. 

The traditional payment models in healthcare have shifted to value based models, Gammie explained.  A driving force behind the changes is the financial burden that Medicare has placed on the country. So like it or not, the changes are here to stay. 

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