480 Long term Care
19 April, 2016
Immigrants in Long term Care
Everyone at some point in life will need assistant in daily activity or routine. Some have family members providing that care while some have to rely on a professional care giver to fulfill their daily needs or wants. Even if it is not recommended to be the care giver for elders since it will decrease your life expectancy; many have a reason why they choose to care for their parents or grandparents in their housings. According to the article posted on briefly speaking by arag legal, 49 percent of Americans are acting as the primary caregiver for an elderly parent and most of them may not be entirely prepared for the roller coaster of emotions and physical stress that can cause even to the strongest person (P., & Legal, A. 2016).
According to the United states census bureau, in 2015, there are almost 50 million elder(65 and older) residing in the U.S and when the baby boomer generation enters their elderly year, the number of the elder will grow by an average of 2.8 percents annually. Out of the the 50 million elders, 1.3 million of the elders are in nursing homes (U.S Census Bureau, n.d.). I have a personal experience in the nursing facility. I used to go visit my grand father in the nursing facility when i lived in Dallas. which gave me the idea to write my research paper on effect of language barrier among immigrants residing in the U.S. I am an immigrant (african american) who came from Ethiopia five years ago to the Land of opportunity to purse my dream on one day changing the health care system back home. When i came here five years ago,I was staying In Dallas with my aunt attending school. My grand father at the time also an immigrant was living in a nursing facility so i went to visit him. My grand father came to the U.S seven years ago so I saw him having hard time communicating with some of the staff members. Even though, my grandfather knew the common words in english, he was struggling expressing his needs and wants. It made me wonder how many elders in the nursing facility face the same problem my grandpa was facing. According to the center of medicare advocacy, recent research regarding racial and ethnic minorities in nursing homes finds that between 1998 and 2008, the number of elderly Hispanic people living in nursing homes increased by 54.9%, the number of elderly Asians living in nursing homes increased by 54.1%, and the number of elderly African-Americans living in nursing homes increased by 10.8%. During the same ten-year period, the number of White Americans living in nursing homes declined by 10.2% (Good News, Bad News || CMA, n.d). Among these diversity I wonder how many of these suffer with the same issue my grandpa is facing. Many face a wide variety of challenges within their daily lives, imagine adding the stress of not being able to communicate with their native language and how this can possibly affect quality of care delivered .
According to the article posted by the university of rhode island, language barriers in health care are a growing concern for patients and health care providers . A majority of nurses reported that language barriers are a significant impediment to quality care and a source of stress in the workplace (Lauren, n.d). I can relate to this because my grandpa would be in a group activity at the nursing home and he wouldn’t be able to fluently communicate with his group so he decides to skip activities which can be considered impairment of health since it causes depression. Depression not only affects a person's mental health, but often impacts on a person's physical health. In a one year study by psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins University, nursing home residents with depressive disorder were 59% more likely to die than residents who were not depressed (Illinois Council on Long Term Care, n.d.). Which brings me back to why I said language barrier can cause health impairment. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy measured health literacy disparities in several culturally diverse populations of American adults. Notably, the average health literacy scores for Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and multicultural adults were lower than those of White and Asian/Pacific Islander adults” (Zhanlian Feng,n.d).
References
Lauren Houle, Language Barrier in Health Care., DigitalCommons@URI. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/175/
P., & Legal, A. (2016). 10 Things to Consider Before Becoming Your Parent’s Caregiver. Briefly Speaking., Retrieved April 20, 2016, from https://www.araglegal.com/blog/2016/02/16/10-things-to-consider-before-becoming-your-parents-caregiver
Recognizing and Treating Resident Depression., Illinois Council on Long Term Care. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.nursinghome.org/fam/fam_005.html
SIXTY-FIVE PLUS IN THE UNITED STATES, .U.S Census Bureau (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from https://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/statbriefs/agebrief.htm
The Changing Demographics of Nursing Home Care: Greater Minority Access... Good News, Bad News || CMA. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/the-changing-demographics-of-nursing-home-care-greater-minority-access…-good-news-bad-news/
Zhanlian Feng, Mary L. Fennell, Denise A. Tyler, Melissa Clark and Vincent Mor, Affairs.Health Affairs (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/7/1358.full
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