Aging And Long-Term Care: Memory Loss, Health Issues, and End-of-Life Care

Course Summary

In the United States the population is aging and this trend is expected to increase over the next decades. This growth in the elderly population will far exceed the growth in younger age groups, so that  long-term care will be an important topic related to aging factors, special disability populations, end-of-life care issues and trends in long-term care. Dementia patients have complex challenges in their daily care. Depression is not an expected or normal part of aging. Depression may present differently in elderly people as compared to younger adults. While elderly individuals are less likely to be depressed than younger adults, depression among geriatric patients can be linked to decreased cognitive and physical functioning, as well as increased rates of mortality. Subsyndromal depression (SD) is the most prevalent depressive disorder in older adults. Subsyndromal depression involves symptoms that do not rise to a clinically recognized syndrome. Interdisciplinary health team members skilled in the area of aging and long term care function to help one another and to educate patients and their family members to develop a treatment plan. All members of the interdisciplinary team, including family caregivers, help dementia patients to manage care transitions, such as a care provider and to ensure the affected person with dementia has access to appropriate community-based services. The patient’s caregivers and as well as the dementia patient are able to help support the quality of life of all community members.