Long Term Care And Support System

Question1

The culture of caring is highly embraced by both the African-American and the Japanese cultures considering their deep concern for the elderly people. Though the African-American culture has provisions of care for the elderly, there, however, exists a cultural lag between the culture of caring, and the material necessities required to provide the needed care. The Japanese culture, on the other hand, has long-term care and support system, enabled by their cultural values, together with the prevailing health care system. This has helped maintain the tradition of providing long-term care at home.

Culture has always played an incredible and enormous in the provision of long-term care for the elderly members of the family in various ways. As such, culture facilitates the inclusion of family members  and loved ones in caring for the older adults (Andrews & Boyle, 2008). This is in enabled by the fact that family members are participants in the informal social support networks, which are designed to nurture, and maintain the older adults, in community residences that are favorable to them. Moreover, all families are believed to posses culturally influenced patterns of responsibility aimed at taking care of the older members of the family, which varies across cultures (Andrews & Boyle, 2008). As such, in the Japanese culture, for instance, caregivers believe that caring for the older family members is a calling, hence demonstrating the influence culture has in taking care of these old family members.

Gender plays a crucial role in a given culture’s provision of care to older family members. In the African American culture, for instance, women in the family may be involved in taking care of the older family members, for example, their spouses older than them. The typical caregiver in this culture is mostly females who do not need to use formal health care services (Andrews & Boyle, 2008).

Question 2

Vignette 1

David Peterson enjoys some amount of informal support system from his caregivers, and especially from his daughter. The support includes the much-needed emotional support that Peterson requires, with regard to his current incapacitated state of affairs. In light of his his incapacitation, he further needs assistance in moving from his bed to the wheelchair and to the toilet. Other informal support system that Peterson requires includes having someone to run errands for him and accompanying him to a physician’s appointment whenever necessary (Olson & Massie, 2008). He also needs assistance in performing other activities of the day, for instance, household chores.

Peterson also requires formal services to aid his current condition, which includes the care provided while at home and away from the home. At home, he may require services, such as, a visiting nurse services to keep checking his health condition in his old age. He also needs a homemaker services, and health aid services. Away from home, Peterson requires the services provided in a physician’s office, and day care provision from a nursing facility. He may also require the services of a social worker who works as a liaison between him and those who provide him with both the informal and formal services necessary (Olson & Massie, 2008). The social worker thus acts as a formal service provider to Peterson.

With regard to this vignette, I believe that the older adult is not receiving the most optimal care for various reasons. Considering that Peterson needs assistance for any movement, even to the toilet, it, therefore, becomes mandatory that he has an ever present person to take care of his needs. This, however, is not the case considering that he lives alone and receives personal care for just a few hours in a day. His daughter, though providing him with regular informal care, is not always available, not to mention the fact that she does not have the capacity to provide the much-needed hands-on care to her father. With view of the above, I believe that Peterson requires somebody staying by his side always in order to provide him with optimal care.

References

Andrews, M. M., & Boyle, J. S. (2008). Transcultural concepts in nursing care. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

 Olson, L., & Massie C. M. (2008). Handbook of Long-Term Care Administration and Policy.CRC Press.