CARE PROCESS FOR ELDERLY HOME CARE

Running head: CARE PROCESS FOR ELDERLY HOME CARE
Care Process for Elderly Home Care
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CARE PROCESS FOR ELDERLY HOME CARE
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Introduction
The cases of mental health disorder are very common among the people of Australia
and it is reported that the cases of mental health illness has become a serious problem for the
elderly population in Australia. As per the data of the Australian Government, it can be
stated that almost 10-15 per cent of the older adults are suffering from the issue of mental
health disorder in the country. In this regard, it can be stated that the due to the mental health
disorder, those patients generally show suicidal behaviours as well and as a result, it has
become very important to take care of those people eagerly. Moreover, the report also stated
that the rate of the mental health problems is generally higher among the Australian
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and under the age group of 55 year and above, the rate
of psychologically distress patients are almost 18 per cent in case of females and in case of
females it is almost 30 per cent (Australian Government, 2020). Therefore, the inventions of
various modern technologies also helps to enhance the overall life expectancy of the elderly
people in the country and caring the elderly people at their home environment has also
become mandatory. In various studies, it is stated that the application of home based care for
the elderly population has also helped to enhance the treatment outcome and the rate of
patient satisfaction as well. Hence, it can be stated that for the elderly people having the
problem of mental health disorder, the application of home based care is very important
(Zabalegui et al., 2014).
In this essay, the role of nurses in a home based care along with the importance of this
home based care for the elderly people is also depicted briefly.

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Discussion
Rationale for Caring Elderly having Mental Health Disorder at Home
The people with mental health disorder generally suffer from various type of health
related problems and as a result the quality of life of the patients gradually decreases with
time as well. As a part of the mental health disorder the patient can face the issue of poor
motor activity, social isolation, lack of support from the family members as well. Therefore,
the role of nurses is very crucial to support the individual at their home care. According to the
study of Yang, Hwang and Kwak (2014), it is stated that the people with different type of
mental health disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, people show wandering behaviour and it
is very difficult to locate an individual with Alzheimer’s or other mental health disorder for
the nurses. It is important to be understood that the symptoms relates to dementia,
Parkinsonism and Parkinson as well and it is very much important that the diagnosis is done
properly in order to reach a community level as well as individual level diagnosis. Therefore,
it can be stated that those patients must be taken care by the nurses at their home as it is easier
to find someone at the house than that of a hospital care setting. As a consequence of the
wandering behaviour of the patients with mental health disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease,
the chances of having fall related accidents are also enhanced as patients have lowered level
of motor control and gait balance (Menant et al., 2014). As per the study findings of
Alzheimer's Association (2016), it is stated that the due to the altered gait balance among the
people with mental health disorder, it is quite obvious that the people are facing the issue of
fall cases in their own home and so it will quite effective to provide a home based care to the
patients suffering from mental health disorders such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson,
amnesia ad memory issues that has been seen to affect the patients. The study of Alzheimer's
Association (2016), also reported that the fall cases are very common among the elderly
people due to their poor body balance and so they face different types of health related

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complications. Hence, the restriction in wandering behaviours of the patients due to the
mental health disorder may improve the condition of the patients and along with this, the
cases of fall related injuries may also be reduced if the nurses provide a home based care to
the patients.
In this regard the study findings of Stevens, Mahoney and Ehrenreich (2014), can be
mentioned and as per the study findings, it is observed that the cases of fall injuries are low in
number when the patients are kept in a small area such as in a room. Therefore, it can be
stated that the in case of home based care patients are generally kept within a small amount of
area and so it can be stated that if the patients are given a home based care, then the chances
of getting fall cases can may reduce and so it is important to give home based care to the
patients suffering from mental health disorders. On the other hand, the self-harm behaviour is
also very common among the patients of mental health disorder and it is very difficult to care
a huge number of people at a same time in a mental health care facility. Therefore, it will be a
wise decision to provide a home based care process to those patients suffering from the
problem of mental health disorder. In a home base care, the nurse will only be responsible for
taking care of one patients and he or she easily can prevent any type of adverse incidents
related to the self-harm behaviour of patients suffering from mental health disorder. Another
important reason that is associated with the care process of the mental health disorder patients
is poor support from the family members and along with this, in some cases the family
members also are not ready to provide proper support to the patients of mental health
problems (Nielsen et al., 2017). In this regard, it can be stated that the application of the
home based care for the mental health disorder will allow the nurse to be with patients at their
home and thus it may possible that the patient can share his or her feelings with the nurse and
thereby the issue of isolation can be reduced to some extent.