There is an increasing
trend
of commissioning the elders of a family to an old age home or nursing centres. While there are some benefits of
such
an arrangement, there are some evident pitfalls.
This
essay will discuss both, the advantages as well as the disadvantages of
this
trend
.
The main advantage of putting aged
people
in a nursing home or a
care
centre is that they can be better looked after.
This
is because, the staff at
such
institutions
are adept at handling the elderly, and have ample experience to deal with their requirements.
For instance
, one
such
facility has an in-house doctor who performs regular check-ups of the overall
health
of the elders. Another advantage of sending senior citizens to old age homes is, the opportunity for them to live amongst like-minded individuals, which is very essential for their mental
health
at
this
stage of their lives. When they are surrounded by
people
of their age, they feel comfortable and are able to share their experiences with others who can relate to them, thereby making them feel happy. A recent study carried out in
this
regard concluded, that a significant 45% of senior citizens residing at
such
places feel happy and content.
However
,
this
trend
is not without its share of disadvantages. The biggest one being, feeling a sense of isolation. Not everyone wants to stay away from their families and some
people
are put in
such
homes against their will.
Hence
, they feel extremely lonely and
this
inadvertently leads to depression. A staggering 60% of senior citizens at these
institutions
suffer from anxiety and bipolar disorder, according to a survey.
In addition
to
this
, the other negative impact
this
trend
seems to have is the maintenance of service levels by
such
institutions
. Due to a rising number of
people
being commissioned to these facilities, the staff is not able to cope up with the demands of the members and work under severe pressure situations.
As a result
, they are unable to provide the requisite level of attention and
care
to the residents.
As was reported by a local newspaper, a
care
centre had to shut its operations as it was not able to cater to the needs of the elderly, due to the sudden rise in the number of
people
being signed up for it.
Therefore
, to conclude, it is evident that more and more old
people
are being sent off to
third
-party
care
providers
instead
of being looked after by their family.
This
essay discussed two main advantages of
this
trend
, namely - better physical
health
care
and positive mental
health
of the members.
This
essay
also
highlighted the core disadvantages of
this
new shift i.e.
people
suffering from depression and the deteriorating service levels of these
institutions
.