Care for the elderly, or simply care for the elderly (also known in some parts of the English-speaking world as care for the elderly), meets the needs of older adults. It includes assisted living, adult day care, long-term care, nursing homes (often referred to as residential care), palliative care, and home care. Geriatrics is the area of medicine that supports people who could be considered older people, while “older people” is a description of an age group, 2) it is more widely used as an adjective, while geriatric tends to refer to more specific areas of medicine and research. As a result of aging, adults may have unique health conditions.
Geriatric health professionals have special training to help older adults maintain their health and independence for as long as possible.
Comprehensive Care for the Elderly
(PACE) programs provide comprehensive medical and social services to certain frail older people living in the community, most of whom are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid benefits. An interdisciplinary team of health professionals provides PACE participants with coordinated care. For most participants, the comprehensive package of services allows them to remain in the community instead of receiving care in a nursing home. Funding for the program is capped, allowing providers to provide all the services needed by participants instead of just those reimbursable under Medicare and Medicaid fee-for-service plans.PACE is a Medicare program, and states can choose to provide PACE services to Medicaid beneficiaries as an optional Medicaid benefit. The PACE program becomes the only source of Medicaid and Medicare benefits for PACE participants. Geriatricians are primary care doctors who have additional specialized training in treating older patients. They may practice in outpatient settings, nursing facilities or hospitals.
Home health care is a wide range of health care services that you can receive at home in the event of an illness or injury. Home health care is often less expensive, more convenient, and as effective as the care you receive in a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF). It's a movement that helps hospitals, doctors' offices, retail pharmacies, nursing homes, home care providers and others provide appropriate care for older people. An example is the Comprehensive Care Programs for the Elderly (PACE) in the United States, which have a minimum age of 55. The Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Health Care Improvement, in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the American Catholic Health Association.
Geriatrics is the area of medicine that supports people who could be considered older people, while the term “older people” is a description of an age group. The word “elderly” is more commonly used to describe a person's age or to group older people according to their age, while geriatric is considered a more medicalized term. The use of “older people” in research settings has received criticism from some specialists due to its lack of specificity and nuance. The Institute for the Improvement of Health Care (IHI) will facilitate the next community of action starting in spring 2020.
Despite being descriptive, “older people can generalize excessively and lack the details that are often needed for both medical treatment and research. Elderly is a term used to describe older people, while geriatric refers to a specialized field of medicine and science. The next community of action, led by the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI), will begin in spring 2020. It's important for people, both medical and non-medical, to understand the health care needs of older people.
This approach has already been adopted in some areas of medicine, as demonstrated by some initiatives that offer support to older adults at a younger age than what is normally considered an elderly person.