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Missouri Department Health Senior Services Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Missouri Department Health Senior Services. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
A Variety Of Senior Care Services
from:Everyone remembers an aging parent or grandparent who might have required special senior care services. However, not all seniors require health care immediately. Some may need other types of senior care services just to help them get around or stay active and involved in their community. It’s good to be aware of the best ways to serve the needs of a beloved senior while maintaining a degree of dignity for them and reducing potential costs.
Aged Centers For Fun And Recreation
One of the top things to keep seniors engaged with life is to allow them a place for community interaction. Aged centers often sponsor events and outings for seniors or help teach them skills. Some are even centers for networking seniors as mentors for younger members of the community.
Transportation Services
Some seniors may lose their mobility before they require any kind of health care services. The loss may be due to poor eyesight or coordination skills. In such cases, senior shuttle services may be available to allow an elderly person to maintain some degree of independence without depending on family or relatives too much. Senior care services can be pinpointed to a specific need and some seniors only require monthly bus passes to get around.
Home Health Aides
If a senior is generally in good health or an easy medical routine, a home health aide can be brought into the home to help with hygiene issues and to monitor the senior’s vital signs. Home health aides usually make visits on a regular basis and can be trained to do simple medical procedures. They tend to the patient’s environment often cleaning or making sure the senior has the supplies they need to take proper care of themselves.
Assisted Living Communities
If a senior is beginning to loose mental functioning, it may require more round-the-clock intervention to keep a senior from harming themselves or others unintentionally. The simple routines like locking a door or turning off a gas stove may escape seniors with Alzheimer’s and these types of conditions need senior care services that will monitor them full-time.
Hospice
If a senior becomes ill with a fatal disease and is beginning to degenerate to the point where the death may be imminent, they can receive hospice treatment. Hospice is typically for terminal patients and many seniors, about 90% delivered within the senior’s own residence instead of assisted living. However, there are hospice centers and some hospice is given in nursing homes as well. Hospice treatment is aimed at relieving pain and disease symptoms, but the patient understands that hospice is not meant to cure them. It is one of the senior care services to relieve suffering at the last stage of life. Should a patient’s disease or condition go into remission, hospice is terminated and home health aides are assigned for less frequent monitoring. In addition to helping seniors at the end of life, hospice provides networking for bereavement support groups for survivors.