Reasons behind the transfer of elderly people to care homes

According to Dale and Hvalvik (2013), older persons remain in a particularly vulnerable situation when there is a transition between the home and care homes. The number of elderly people who are being transferred from their homes and are transited to the care homes has been increasing (Dale and Hvalvik 2013). Considering the ability of the professional nurses and carers to take care of the needs and wants of the elderly people, it has convinced people to let their parents or any other elderly person to be transited to the care homes (Dale and Hvalvik 2013). From the report, it has been found that in the last 30 years. There has been an increase of 15% of elderly people being transferred to care homes whose age is less than 75 years (Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 2018). Other reasons for sending the elderly people to the care homes include limited clinical information, insufficient update of the care plans and medication errors that the family members face. At times they are not being capable of taking care of the patient or the elderly person; they decide to send the elder person to a care home. However, it has to be mentioned that in all these transitions, it is mainly the elder person is the one who suffers the most (Dale and Hvalvik 2013). As commented by Ylen-Julin (2014), the major challenge for the elderly people is due to their increasing age. In their old age, the old people seek for the care and support from their own family members and near ones, but keeping various instances into consideration, the elder people are being sent to the care homes (Ylen-Julin 2014). It is also believed that when an old person is sent to the care homes, they will be given better care there, but this transition phase is very challenging for the elderly people as it might also bring certain unacceptable changes in their lives (Ylen-Julin 2014).

The aim of this study is to carry out a critical analysis of the relevant literatures that would help to understand the various reasons behind the transfer of the elderly people from their own residents to the care homes. In order to understand the impact and the effect of the transition on the elderly people, a detailed investigation on the transition phase in the lives of the elderly will be carried on. In addition to this, the role of the family members along the nurses and the carers shall also be discussed in the literature review section. A number of research objectives will be set and the entire research will be based on the set objectives. Based on the findings, the analysis will be done followed by recommending certain ways of improving the lives of elderly people in their old age.

Impact and effects of the transition on the elderly people

The reason of transferring the elderly people to care homes are elaborately discussed here

 As commented by Yu et al. (2015), residential family care for the elderly can be easily considered to be far more desirable than the care that is provided within the formal care homes. This conviction can easily be regarded as certain cultural values that actually support family ties and bonding. It has to be understood that the social norms are actually mandating the obligations of the family members for each other considering the economic constraints in implying the obligation on the individual families as well as on the society (Marventano et al. 2015). It can be easily said that if the old people are not actually placed at the right place and under the care and supervision of the carers, it would become extremely difficult for the elderly to continue living in such communities (Deusdad et al. 2016). The care homes indeed provide a long-term benefit to the elderly in terms of their living condition of life and they also take great care of the lingering concerns of the elderly (Deusdad et al. 2016). In contrary to this, there are those people as well who do not take the step of sending the elderly to the care homes but rather prefer to continue the care and welfare of the elderly at their home as long as their own best interest is ceased (Basic and Hartwell 2015). In such cases, the families remain at the opinion that the elderly or their parents would be happier and more secure at their own residence rather than in an alien place that would be completely new for the person. Burke et al. (2014) is in the opinion that it might be easier for a child or young person to adjust in a new environment and become a part of the new place because the young person is considered to have developed less memories with his or her previous lives. In fact, the growing age is the age of exploring and coming up with new thoughts and idea (Lyons et al. 2015). During this time, it becomes easier for the young people to understand the importance of the environment where they live and they can easily become a part of the same. However, if the situation of an elderly person is taken into consideration, it has to be said that it would not be very easy for the elderly person who has already lead his life (Eric et al. 2014). It requires complete understanding and agreement from the elderly person to send them to the care homes. In case they do not show the positive attitude towards going to the care homes, it becomes really challenging for them as well as their family members to cope with the situation and lead a healthy and peaceful life.

Role of family members, nurses, and carers

There have been many issues identified with the transfer of the elderly people from their own residents to the care homes. The idea of sending elderly people to a care home with the belief that they will be taken better care of has been challenged by Brain et al. (2016).  According to Brain et al. (2016) our body being a social being always try to maintain a harmony and lively experience only when remain connected with the people in a society because people can easily share any issue or concern with other people.  Most importantly, it can be mentioned here that a person who spends all his life with his family members in a particular residence is obviously more prone to develop great bonding with them.  In such cases even if the elderly person is ill or sick due to some reason, they can still be comfortable at their own home and they can rely on their own family members (Bryant?Lukosius et al. 2015).  However, sending the elderly people to the care homes has become very challenging for the elderly people and thus, the transfer of the elderly people to the care homes has become an issue in the recent time. The belief and the trust on the fact that there is someone to look upon and care for them for every small thing that they would need actually help them to stay in a better health condition, both in terms of physically and mentally. It is only when they are separated away from their own family members and then send to a place that completely unknown and new to them, they develop a kind of insecurity within themselves that actually hinders their wellbeing (Cabrera et al. 2015).

In the current scenario, many people are considering sending their parents or any other elderly person of their family to a care home. Although one of the positive intentions of sending the elderly person in the care home is to make sure that they remain in a healthy condition and that they can be given instant care and support whenever they are needed but at times the situation does not support the cause (Cabrera et al. 2015). The change in the living condition might result in something negative that might lead to degrade the health of the elderly person. It has been found that these elderly people feel neglected and they seem to develop a kind of dissatisfaction among them with all the people around them (Verhaegh et al. 2014).  In fact they lost the ability to trust any person because it is the family members who actually abandoned them and decided to put them away (Verhaegh et al. 2014). This result in trust issue and it has also been found that the elderly persons become extremely disheartened and that they strive to fight for their own health. Therefore, the research will focus on finding the effect on the elderly people as a result of sending them to a care home.

Thematic review of existing literature

What are the effects of living in a care home on elderly resident?

To investigate the effects of transitioning into care homes on the elderly

1) To identify the causes of sending elderly people to care homes.

2) To evaluate the effects of living in a care home on the elderly people.

3) To identify the measures being taken to alleviate the effects of transitioning into the care home on the elderly by the nurses or the carers.

4) To recommend certain ways to improve the approaches of tackling the ill effects of moving the elderly into a care home

This particular dissertation is completely based on literature review and so a complete secondary research method has been used to write the dissertation and come up with the findings.  The particular topic of this dissertation is very theoretical and so there has been no attempt made to gather primary data. Considering the theoretical approach towards the study, a thematic review of the existing literature by the means of a qualitative research has been adopted as the methodology of the research (Richey and Klein 2014). Understanding the impact of the transition of the elderly people from their own resident to the care home can only be possible if there is a thorough study of the literature available on this particular area of study along with several other secondary data like reports and news on this issue. These sources would give a clearer picture of what actually happens when there is a transition among the elderly people and when they are shifted to a care home (Nieswiadomy and Bailey 2017).  Therefore, it should be considered that for this particular study only secondary research has been conducted and there is no implication made for carrying out any kind of primary research.  The findings and the outcomes are completely based on reviewing the literature and other secondary sources that give a clearer picture of the actual implication on the elderly person when there is a transition or shifting to a care home for various reasons.  A detailed discussion of the methodology can be conducted below:

Research approaches are mainly of two types; inductive approach and deductive approach.  The inductive approach helps us to develop our own findings and on the other hand the deductive approach is made when we consider the findings from the various literatures and other research paper (Ledford and Gast 2018).  For this particular study, deductive approach has been undertaken and all the findings and analysis of the research has been carried out on the basis of the literature that has been reviewed for this research. Thus, inductive approach has not been used as developing own theories and concepts would not have been effective.  It was very challenging to find out related research articles that would exactly match with research topic but with an active search on various data bases, it was possible to gather sufficient information that helped to reach out a particular conclusion.

Secondary research

Positivism research philosophy has been selected that has helped to understand the topic in details. It is important to understand the present situation of the elderly person who is transferred to the care homes and so positivism research philosophy is the best suitable research method. The analytical or the descriptive research design has been selected to carry out the research in a detailed manner.

As already mentioned the research was completely based on secondary data and so the data collection technique that has been used is based on active search of the databases. Sources like journal articles, review papers, research articles and related materials that would give us enough information and idea of the present condition of the older people as a result of transferring them from their residence to the care homes were used (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). The database sources like our University library, Google Scholars and other online sites have been used to find out articles and relevant literature on the topic. The effectiveness of the collection of the papers depended on the active keywords that have been used to search out the articles.  For instance the keywords and phrases that were used to search relevant data are: “Reasons behind the transition of elderly people from the resident to the care home”, “Effectiveness of the transition of the elderly from the residence to the care home”, “the role of the nurses or carers in taking care of the elderly person at the care home”, “the probable measures that can be taken to take care of the needs and wants of the elderly person at the care home” and several other related search terms. In situation there were huge number of articles and review papers that where available for us to take help and carry on the research but it depended on the strategy used to understand what was actually important to be included in the research and what can be left without checking.  In such cases a proper reading of the literature and the available resources was the only option left in order to address the research topic. It has to be mentioned in this respect that there were several other conditions as well that was important when selecting the right article to write the research paper. Therefore, a thorough inclusion and exclusion criteria  have also been used in order to make sure that the article that have been used for reviewing these study falls under right criteria and it matches the requirement of the study as well (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). Roughly, the search included around 55-60 peer reviewed papers and of those, 40 peer reviewed papers have been used as a references in this dissertation. For the analysis, in order to address the identified objectives, 5 themes were made. These themes are discussed in the following chapters.

1. The articles had to be matched with the words that have been used for searching the articles
2. In order to match the currency and the relevancy of the article,  the articles that was published only after 2012
3. The articles were mainly focused only on the elderly person
4. It has also been tried to focus on search articles that is related to United Kingdom because the research was mainly conducted for the elderly of this region
5. In order to test the authenticity of the article selected for conducting the literature review the Peer reviewed journals were more preferred because those articles can be easily trusted because the articles have been viewed and reviewed by other scholars and researchers (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015).
6. In addition to this it was also made sure that the article that have been used for this study was completely meant for academic purpose or research
7. Most importantly for a research paper it is important to cite all the sources from where the information has been taken in order to make sure that there is no issue of plagiarism and that the idea of the authors have been taken and has been written in own words, it is important to cite all the information (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). This is the reason that one of the search criteria was that the articles should have the permission to cite the resources. Therefore those articles which were permissible for citation where used for the purpose of writing this research paper.

1. Research papers before 2012 were not used because older articles might have information that are obsolete and would not be effective enough for writing this particular research
2. Articles related to other groups of people were not taken into account
3. No doctoral dissertation; or papers that were not peer reviewed were not taken into consideration. Thus, it gives and authenticity of the fact that whatever information that will be taken from these articles would be genuine and it can be easily taken as a part of the research.  This can directly contribute to the research that has been undertaken
4. Articles were excluded on the basis that there was  no advertisements in the paper because the same article was used for the purpose of conducting and academic research
5. The articles that had any kind of advertisement or promotional content were simply rejected and were not taken into consideration due to lack of authenticity. It is believed that when a particular article is intended for only promotional or advertisement, the content in the article might be manipulative in order to attract more target group of people (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). Therefore the reliability on search articles is reduced and it is preferable not to use such article.

No primary data

In the data collection process it should be remembered that there has been no effort made towards collecting any kind of primary data because this study was completely based on the findings from the various literatures available on the topic and there was no implication made for collecting real life data or primary data (Mackey and Gass 2015).  Therefore, no effort had been made to reach out any particular person personally, in order to get any kind of information, neither from the elderly people nor from the family members.  In fact none of the practitioners or the nurses was also approached to get any kind of information.  However, if such approach would have been made, the outcome would have been better because this particular topic emphasizes on the actual feeling of the elderly and also the situation of the practitioners when they have to take care of the patients in the care home. The findings and analysis could have been better if proper information from these individuals would have been gained. Therefore, this lack of information from the actual person can be regarded as one of the limitations or problem that has been faced while carrying out this research.

Other limitations were the lack of getting relevant research papers for conducting the literature review. There was a limitation of recent papers written on this issue. In fact, the time allotted for completing this research was limited as well and this can be considered as a major limitation of the study as well.

The literature review was based on various themes and sub themes that actually address the topic of the study. These themes have been described below. In order to understand the impact of the transition on the elderly, it is important to understand the other aspects that are directly or indirectly related to the impact on the elderly in their transition to the care homes. It is important to understand the perception of the carers as well as the members of the patients in order to understand the actual outcome of sending the elderly to the care homes. It is based on such observation that the below sub points or themes have been taken into consideration.

There can be various reasons of sending an elderly person to a care home.  It has to be understood that when a person grows old, the person suffers from various factors that might create great changes in his own life as well as with those with whom he lives (Allen et al. 2014). Most importantly when a person grows old he or she implies an increased risk of suffering from various illnesses and to the highest extent it might result in some form of disabilities as well (Allen et al. 2014).  It is a common observation that the immunity of a person decreases with growing age this in turn might attract various diseases that might also be harmful and at times incurable. All these things create a problematic situation for both the elderly person as well as his family members (Li et al. 2015). This is the very first reason that the members of the family do not want to take any kind of risk and they prefer sending the elderly person to a care home with the hope that they will be given better care and support at the care home.  It is the lack of confidence of taking care of the elderly person that actually compels them to take the necessary action and they prefer to send the elderly person to a care home (Li et al. 2015). It should be taken into account that it is not always that the family members only think about the benefits of the elderly person and choose to send them to a care home so that they can lead a healthy and safe life, but at times a self-centric factor also works behind the motive of sending the elderly person to the care homes (Bone et al. 2016). It might happen that the family members are no more interested in taking care of the elderly person because they are too busy in their own life (Bone et al. 2016).

Considering various illnesses that the elderly people are mainly affected with, it has been found that people always prefer to keep an expert or in contact in order to make sure that whenever there will be a need of any care taker there shall be available (Buurman et al. 2016). These diseases or illnesses include, cough and cold, dementia, arthritis and other common health issues that results in the old age. It has to be understood that the diseases that are usually found to take place among the elderly seems to get more serious with the passage of time.  This clearly defines that if the elderly persons are not given proper care at the right time, the situation might get worse and the family members would have nothing to do at that point of time (Ensing et al. 2015). Thus, considering the emergency of the situation and the fact that it might create greater problems for both the family members and the old person if proper care is not given at the right time, the elderly persons are actually sent to a care home with the little security and hope that the elderly person of the family will be given better care and will get the necessary treatment (Eika et al. 2015).

According to Allen et al. (2014) it has also been found that the elderly person are also very responsible and mature enough to decide upon themselves whether they want to leave with their family members are in a separate care home. Some people understand the importance of the need of privacy that the family members wish to have.  For example in the recent time it cannot be denied that most families are nuclear families and both husband and wife are working individuals who have their own career objectives and that they do not want that their hard work of studying and getting a good job is wasted and all they have to do is to take care of the elderly persons at home (Li et al. 2015). Also as already mentioned considering the health factor the elderly persons also believe that their health issue might become a real trouble or challenge for the other members of the family.  In the entire situation it is easily understandable by the elderly persons and they themselves prefer to live separately in a care home.  

In fact it has also been found that people are well planned of their future and that they themselves make the necessary arrangements of getting admitted and the care homes (Bone et al. 2016).  It is when they find that they are no longer wanted in their family and that they have become a burden for all they decide to part themselves from the family and wanted to leave in a place where they can easily relate themselves with others.  In such cases even when the family members are not very willing to send the elderly at the care homes it is only on the complete waste of the elderly person that the elderly person moved to declare home leaving he is family members at home (Brian Cassel et al. 2016).

According to the theory of well-being, there are four domains that are actually formulating or help in measuring the well-being of the people (Polinski et al. 2016).  These are the perception of self, social engagement, autonomy and environment. If the particular elements of self-acceptance are taken into consideration, it has to be said that the elements are the positive attitudes of the person towards self, any kind of feeling of meaningfulness and most importantly having the feeling or opportunity for personal growth (Dusek et al. 2015). In case of social engagement of a human, it is important that the person builds a relationship with other people. This relationship can be completely based on selflessness or there might be a sense of mutual benefits as well. It is the ability of a person to build a relationship that is based on certain terms and that can actually help a person to carry on the regular life activities (Shankar et al. 2014). A person should definitely have the autonomy, self-regulation and independence to work and live on own terms. The theory of well-being also aims at finding the significant areas where large transformations can be made while the person goes through the transition phase from the residential care to the professional care. The four elements of the theory of wellbeing can be analysed and stated as below:

Self-acceptance: 

The transition phase requires the elderly person to be much confident towards self and to keep a positive attitude towards the change that would be going to take place in the coming days (Hirschman et al. 2015). There should be a sense of personal growth in the transition period to keep a faith on the upcoming days that the transition would be positive and that it would further help in developing a better life. It should not be the only concern that the person will be getting detached from the family members and that he has to live separately in a completely new environment (Brown et al. 2018). However, the mentality and the thinking should be positive enough and that the person should be thinking of the other new and better ways that will be on the list (Nayloret al. 2016). For example, the person should have the charm and enthusiasm of exploring something new in life and the opportunity to meet new people. The positive thinking on the fact that there is another world to explore that that life has given another opportunity to live, relish and enjoy the life to the fullest (Rennke and Ranji 2015). Thus, all that will take place in the transition will result in the personal growth of the person and the ability to explore new and unseen areas. It is then that the person will find his life more meaningful and there will be more joy and happiness in the life that one is going to live even after spending almost the whole life in a completely different place and environment.

Positive relationship with others: 

The happiness and the ability to live life on own terms with a positive attitude that whatever would happen in life will be for god and better than before is important for a person during the transition phase (Afram et al. 2015). For the same thing, it is important that there is a strong union among the other people who are also a part of the transition phase. As commented by Callahan et al. (2015), at times, people are able of find out the one for whom they have been waiting for since a long time in their transition period and that the experience of the change would be really pleasing and impactful for them. In such cases, it has also been found that the elderly person actually becomes very happy with the transition by meeting new people who could have the same way of thinking or mentality (Van Haeften-van Dijk et al. 2015). It is actually a phase when a person can re-discover himself and can rejoice each and every moment of the new life with the new set of people.

Autonomy: 

It is another factor that plays a unique role in the transition phase of the elderly person and that it depends on the self-regulation and independent factors. It definitely depends on the person’s willingness and self-acceptability on the level of autonomy that one wants to achieve in their life (Wong and Yeung 2015).  It is a point of concern that in order to reach the level of autonomy that is required for the transition it is important that the elderly should consider that it is for their own benefit that they are being sent to the care home. Most importantly it is not only the elderly but the family members should also give equal value to the autonomy of the person and then they shall be able to reach out the particular conclusion of sending the person to a care home (Gorman 2017).  However it should also be kept into consideration that once they reach the level of autonomy and find themselves comfortable with the new environment it might be easier for all the stakeholders involved in the process to get things better in a more appropriate and logical manner.

Mastering the new environment:

The ability of a person to get a custom with a new environment is also a major criterion for the elderly to become a part of the care home. Unless they find it comfortable for themselves they would not be able to adjust with the surroundings and this may lead to major issues in terms of physical as well as mental condition (Lyons et al. 2015). In this respect it is to be mentioned that the role of family members and team practitioners at the care home is also very vital. In certain situation if the elderly is reluctant to  stay at the care home it should fall under the responsibility of the family members and practitioners to make them comfortable and develop a sense of acceptance that they can easily spend their life or a part of their life in the care home (Burke et al. 2014).

Home care leaders, managers or the nurses have to face unique challenges in order to ensure that the older people or patients receive proper care and treatment in the home care (Basic and Hartwell 2015). It has be considered that the role of care home nursing leaders and managers have a wider role to play in the community because their responsibilities are not only limited to care of the patients but it comprises of the other complexities that are comprised of personal management, budget management along with the day to day care of the patients. It has been also found that at times the family members feel very reluctant to send the elderly to the care home knowing the fact that they might be treated better in a care home and that they are not able to take care of the person in a proper way (Gorman 2017).  Then also they wait for the perfect time to advocate and send the elderly person to the care home and they prefer to take care of the elderly at their home only.  This is when the situation gets worse. When finally the family members decide to send the elderly to the care home just because the person suffers from severe illness or sickness, it already becomes late and the elderly had to suffer in this way or that (Wong and Yeung 2015).  In such cases in the care homes also does not want to take the complete responsibility of the person because there always remain a kind of uncertainty with their future. However, it should also be noted that in certain cases even the care home do not want to take the risk of the patient and they suggest that the patient should be admitted to a hospital or a Nursing Home because the situation is beyond control and that the patient is in order need of getting better medical attention (Van Haeften-van Dijk et al. 2015).  Simple care and comfort would not give the actual satisfaction to the elderly and in turn the care home might be held responsible.  It is due to the inappropriate action of the Family members that the sick and ill elderly have to suffer (Deusdad et al. 2016). Thus, it is important to take the right decision at the right time in order to avoid and unforeseen circumstances.

To identify the causes of elderly people being moved into care homes

Reading Dwyer et al. (2015) it has been found that experiences of both the elderly person and the family members also results in sending the elderly person in the care home. For instance it can be said that very often it is found that the family members have prior experience of either something positive or negative that actually make them believe that is they send the elderly person in the care home it would be beneficial (Albert 2016).  It is obvious that family members would not have the adequate knowledge and experience of taking care of the elderly person and they remain in a constant fear that remind me to take care of the elderly person and it is only due to their lack of proper care that they might loss and important and valuable person from their life (Allen et al. 2014).  In addition to this it might also happen that the family members have good experiences where they have found that the elderly persons who are sent to the care homes actually lead a healthy and simple life (Liimatta et al. 2016).  

In fact it has also been observed that the elderly person gets a new life when they are handed over to a care home where there are other people of their own age.  Thus the experience is nothing but to help them relieve their life again. So the family members also think that if they are unable to spend much time with their loved ones and give the best as per their ability they should be treating the elderly person in a positive way so that they can be able to spend the last years of their life discovering something new and valuable (Wysocki et al. 2014).  The experience might be very pleasant and once in a lifetime.  Considering the other aspect of life the chances are equal that the family members might also have some negative experience that makes them feel that they are incapable of taking care of the elderly person and it is always a better option to keep them under the surveillance of the experienced caretakers.  This is the reason that the family members prefer to send the elderly person to the Care homes.

To understand the effects of living in a care home on the elderly

The effect of moving the elderly person into the care home can be both positive as well as negative. It should be taken into account that the care homes are established in order to make sure that the elderly persons are given enough care so that they can leave a healthy and safer life (Bryant?Lukosiuset al. 2015).  They also make sure do the members of the family that they have been given in the hands of right experienced and well perform practitioners (Bryant?Lukosiuset al. 2015).  So it can be said that there has to be only positive effects on the elderly person when they are move to the care homes.  However it is not always that the care homes can be completely trusted by the family members and their come up with hundred per cent satisfactions to the family members who send their elderly persons at the care homes (Cabrera et al. 2015). It has become a common scenario in the recent time that the nurses and the carer at the care homes do not treat the patients properly as a result of which the admitted patients have to suffer.

Contrary to this this Verhaegh et al. (2014) commented that the carers know how to treat their patients properly and this is the reason that at times when it requires they take harsh steps as a means of caring. So the carers and the nurses should be trusted and everyone should keep our faith on them rather than disbelieving them or not trusting their way of work.  However, it should also be noted that there have been many incidents when the nurses or the carers and actually found it to be guilty of their actions because of various reasons (Buurman et al. 2016).  For example, it has been found that patients are often not treated properly and all that matters to the care homes is the amount of money that is spent on the patients (Ensing et al. 2015). In fact in the recent time the package system of payment has made it easier for the care homes to take all the necessary money all at one time and not caring much about the safety security or the health condition of the admitted elderly person (Ensing et al. 2015).

It will obviously not easy for the elderly person to shift from the resident and be a part of a member of the care home. Considering the professional attitude of the practitioners and the care home it is always expected that they would consider all the necessary steps to make it feel that the elderly person is much comfortable in the new place (Eika et al. 2015). However, the situation cannot be so easy for the elderly person to adjust and become a part of the care home within a short time (Eika et al. 2015). As discussed earlier that it is not that always the elderly person who are forced to go to the care homes and spend the rest of their life away from their family members and loved ones, but at times the elderly person themselves consider to leave their home for various other reasons and started living with those people with whom they can easily relate their lives (Yu et al. 2015).  Therefore, even if the elderly person is actually much sure about his stay at the care home, there might be certain challenges that the person would face in the primary stage.

Most importantly that affects the decision of the elderly person is the location or the environment of the care home. As pointed out by Goodman et al. (2016) that this transition could easily be related to the transition of a little girl or boy when he or she has to go to the school for the first time.  It has to be understood that no matter how well maintained and good the care home might be, there is a transition of the living pattern that would directly impact on the elderly person (Goodman et al. 2016). The elderly person would primarily try to give the best as per his ability to grasp the changes and try to adjust with the new environment. It should be taken into account that it is not only the place but also the other people who are staying and the care home (Marventano et al. 2015).  It might happen that they would get other people home they know and would love to stay with them and on the other hand the alternate situation might also arise and they consider that living with the particular person will be very challenging (Wysockiet al. 2014). Apart from the environment and the people, issues regarding the food habit can also become a great challenge for the elderly person.

To identify measures being taken to alleviate the effects of transitioning into the care home on the elderly

In order to make the elderly person comfortable and well accommodate within the new place it is very important to think from their perspective and make all kinds of necessary applications that might help the elderly person to cope up with the situation and consider himself as a member of the care home (Liimatta et al. 2016).  In this situation, the role of the practitioners and the carers is of prime importance and that the role of the family members might not be much impactful in such situation because in such cases the family members would also consider how well behaved or caring at the practitioners and the care home because the elderly person would be now staying with them and that there will be no family member to take care of the person or keep a track or whatever being done to them (Albert 2016). Therefore, the practitioners should consider the elementary situation very important and should try their best to make the elderly person comfortable and at the same time try to create a kind of trust among the family members in order to incorporate that elderly person has been given in the right hand and the care homes are the only place where they can be treated with great care and affection (Dwyer et al. 2015).

As soon as the elderly person is left with the practitioners at care home. It falls under the responsibility of the practitioner to take all kind of necessary action in order to make sure that the new member of the care home gets adequate attention and can feel themselves at a particular comfort zone (Gorman 2017).  In order to achieve this outcome, it is expected that the elderly person should be given all kinds of information related to the home (Gorman 2017). The very next step is to introduce the elderly person with the other people at the care home.  In this respect, reading Wong and Yeung (2015) it has been found that when a new member joins a care  home,  it is not only becomes challenging for the new member but at the same time it is equally challenging for the other members who are already residing and the care homes. Therefore, considering the fact that all the present members should know each other and should be able to considerate other as a member of the same place (Van Haeften-van Dijk et al. 2015).  Therefore, it is also the responsibility of the carers  to make sure that there develops a positive  bonding among each member in the care home and that every person is very comfortable staying with each other.

Once all of them know each other it might fall under the responsibilities of the existing members to make sure that the new member feels it to be another home and that everything that he demands would be available to him (Callahan et al. 2015). It is only when there is a zone of comfort and our friendly atmosphere it would be possible for the new member to arrive at the care home to adjust with the existing situation and also to become a part of the care home. However, there is no denial of the fact that there always remains a kind of fear or tension among the newly joined elderly person on how there shall be treated in the new place and it is only after staying for a long time they might be able to understand the difference between their own home and the care home (Afram et al. 2015).

To recommend certain ways to improve the approaches of tackling the ill effects of moving the elderly into a care home

In case if the person had been receiving much care and comfort and his own resident and that he is no longer a part of receiving that care in the care home it might become a very problematic situation for both the elderly person and the practitioners (Naylor et al. 2016).  However, it might also be the situation that the elderly person would consider that the care home is much better place because they can easily relate themselves with the other members of the care home and they can rejoice or share their moments with the existing persons (Eric et al. 2014).  This depends on the person on how much time  they would require to  adjust or accustomed with the new environment and become a part of it but once the person get adjust it the situation my turn positive and the elderly person becomes a part of the care home very easily (Naylor et al. 2016). There have been certain instances when it resulted in the creation of certain hazards at the care homes and it affected the life of the elderly persons (Eric et al. 2014).  Keeping the situation that the elderly persons are not treated well in the individual care home residents there have been the implementation of the human rights act 1998 in order to overcome certain challenges that the family members as well as the elderly persons very facing when they went suddenly shifted from their own resident to the care home (Rennke and Ranji 2015). :

As previously mentioned that the main reason of shifting the elderly person to a care home is to make sure that they would be taken care of their degrading health issues, it should be the prime responsibility of the care homes to take care of the elderly when they are shifted to the care homes (Eric et al. 2014). The most common issues that have been identified among the elderly person are dementia, inability to do their work on their own and also in some cases becoming an actual nuisance or trouble for the family members (Brown 2018).  However, when the family members trusted on the service of the care home and send their parents or other family members to the care home with the belief that they would be in safer and professional hands, there might arise certain other reasons of applications as well (Li et al. 2015). From various reports it has been identified that the carers themselves and certain point of time becomes so frustrated with the elderly persons that in order to make sure that they no longer become a real problem for them they actually take certain wrong steps in order to let the elderly person go off from the care homes (Hirschman et al. 2015).  

It has also been found that the elderly persons are at times treated very badly and the care home because of their inability to do their things on their own (Eric et al. 2014).  For instances, the elderly person would not be able to go to the bathroom or  might spill their food and then it falls under the job roles of the practitioners to take care of the already done things (Shankar et al. 2014). It has been found that they treat the patients very badly and take out the grudge on them.  Incidences of beating the patients have also been in the news.  Moreover it has also been found that the patients are being thrown away from their homes if there is any kind of delay for when they do not get a response from the family members of the patients. The reason might be due to not receiving right amount of money that the family members pay for their old members (Shankar et al. 2014). Therefore, certain laws have been made in order to make sure that then elderly persons get the best care when they are staying at a home.

 Considering the fact that there has been many instances when the elderly persons are found to escape from the care home it has also been a part of the law that there should be proper enclosures and the care home so that the patients are not able to escape from there (Bryant?Lukosiuset al. 2015).  It is not only those patients escape willingly as a matter of their own choice but due to some severe health conditions as well they are found to leave the care home knowingly or unknowingly (Dusek et al. 2015).  As a result of this, they might reach out to a place where it would be very dangerous for them to survive.  In order to make sure that the people residing in the care homes are given well treatment and they are taken care of, the care homes need to follow certain rules and regulations as well as certain laws in order to make sure that there was responsible towards all the members who are a part of their care home (Polinski et al. 2016).

Conclusion

A detailed analysis on the transition phase that the elderly face when they are transferred from their resident to the care homes has been carried out in this research.  Various reasons behind this transition has been analysed and it has been found that the reason could be both due to personal problems like not getting enough time to take care of the elderly as she’s always been too busy in their own life or it can be a reason for taking care of the deteriorating health issues of the elderly.  In both the cases the intention always remain that the elderly person gave all kinds of care and attention and the care home and that the family members can leave in or more reliable tension free life.  However, the situation does not seem to be positive all the time and that at times it is found that the elderly is have to actually suffer due to their transition.  It has also been a common observation that the care homes have been found to be neglected towards their job roles and responsibilities and day at times behave in a professional way while dealing with the elderly. However, strict law and government regulations have been implemented in order to make sure that any person is not left uncared and a proper guidance and care is given to them and so there are strict laws that needs to be followed by the care homes in order to make sure that the elderly get right attention and care from them. It is that the care homes have to be reliable and good enough so that people can easily trust on their service and can send their older family members to spend the last years of their life.

1. Carers need to be more responsible:

With the overall finding it can be rightly recommended that in the recent time people are getting more dependable on the care homes for the proper care and treatment of the elderly. In such cases the responsibility of the care homes increases to a great extent.  Therefore, it can be rightly recommended that the care homes should come up with certain norms and regulations that would eventually create a level of trust among the elderly as well as the family members.  The members should be satisfied enough that when they are actually letting their elder family members to stay somewhere else and with the first then the elderly will be taken care of,  that trust should be maintained. In such cases, it completely falls under the responsibility of the care homes to come up with plan and surety that whoever will be admitted to their care home will be treated with great care. It should be taken into consideration that the first step of transition is the most important phase and special care should be given right at the time of admission of the elderly in the care home. They should be given that surety that they have been given into the right hand and it is not the end of their life but it is a situation when they can live their life in a completely new way.  Therefore, it should be an opportunity to cherish the moment of the coming days and not to be disheartened about.  

1. Spreading awareness on the importance of care homes:

There is no denial of the fact that the thought process of the people is changing. It is not only the family members who understand the importance of professional care of the practitioners to be given to the people who are in their later stage of life.  Moreover, the care homes are also changing their way of treating people and are focusing in giving better treatment so that every single person concerned with the elderly person can lead a life with relief.  On the other hand, is the thought process of the elderly people is taken into account it can also be said that they are also capable of understanding the situation and show much maturity when they come to the conclusion that they are becoming a burden for the family members.  As already discussed, that and there are people who actually plan their old age and day believe that if they themselves move to a care home they would leave a better life because in that case they might be able to meet other people who  shall be going through the same condition and they could easily relate with each other.  All these circumstances have created an impact on the importance of care home and the role of practitioners has become very important in the recent time.  Therefore, all it can be recommended that the practitioners should be give an adequate training and education on improving the quality of service that they provide.  

In addition to this proper awareness program should also be held where people could be made aware of the benefits that one can get when the elderly persons are admitted in the care home. Moreover, the elderly person as well as the family members should be made aware that if there is a necessity of sending the elderly to the care home for the sake of getting better treatment from professionals. It is always a better option to opt for the care home rather than keeping them at the residence because in such cases proper and professional care might not be given to the elderly as per their need.  Most importantly, considering the negative reviews on the care home regulations have to be kept in order to make sure that the care homes work well enough and give the best as per their ability in order to make sure that proper treatment is given to the elderly when they are given in the right hand of professionals.  It is expected that Is properly things are address then there is a better scope of giving better treatment to the people who are in utter  need of care and treatment. Moreover, it will be getting benefit for the family members as well when they can be sure that their loved ones have been taken care of. Thus, a better social life can be expected easily.

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