The population of elderly people is a growing one here in the United States. As a matter of fact, the population of those who are over the age of 65 is expected to climb dramatically in the years that are ahead of us. Largely, this is something that can be linked to the aging Baby Boomer generation. And as said people age and grow ever older, their needs will change as well.
This is due to the fact that the vast majority of all elderly people – up to 70% of them, very nearly three quarters of the total elderly population – will need long term care at some point in their lives. This long term care can become necessary for a number of reasons. For one thing, elderly people are much more likely to suffer serious injuries when they live alone. Falls are far from uncommon among the elderly population and this is so much the case that a new elderly person is treated by an emergency room for fall related complications with every 11 seconds that pass us by. For many of these people, the injuries will be relatively minor, but even minor injuries can be difficult for an older person to recover from and can lead to other, much more serious, complications. Of course, sometimes the injuries sustained in a fall are not minor at all and will lead to much greater problems for the elderly person in question.
Therefore, it can be safer for an unsteady elderly person to have long term care. In addition to this, elderly people are also much more likely to develop dementia. Dementia is a common diagnosis among the elderly population, as there are currently more than 100 different types of dementia that are diagnosed throughout the country and in the world at large. Of these types of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is by and large the most prominent, making up more than 80% of all dementia cases that we see. In fact, up to five million people have currently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the United States alone, a number that is most certainly likely to grow in the years that are ahead of us.
For such dementia sufferers, a memory care facility is likely to be the best care option. After all, dementia treatment can be found at the average memory care nursing home, but dementia treatment is not likely to be nearly as accessible when an elderly person stays in the care of family members. For as much as these family members might wish to give dementia treatment, it is simply not something they have the tools for or are even qualified to do. So when it comes to the need for dementia treatment and other aspects of senior memory care, a senior memory care community might just be the best option.
And dementia treatment is certainly not the only kind of specialized care that many elderly people develop a need for at some point in time. In addition to dementia treatment, recent research actually also shows that up to 40% of all people living in a secure memory care community or other such assisted living facility are in need of help with as many as three daily living activities – if not even more than that. Having such help on hand at all times is hugely beneficial, as is a key reason that people decide to move into a specialized care facility.
For though many people wish to stay at home as long as they are possibly able to, this is not always realistic at the end of the day. After all, things like dementia treatment and other essential aspects of specialized care simply cannot be provided in the typical home, and therefore it is often the best thing to do to move to a place where specialized caregivers are on staff 24 hours of the day. Learning to live with dementia can certainly be difficult, but the dementia treatment that nursing homes can offer is better than it has ever been. Therefore, taking advantage of that care is something that all elderly people should be doing if it becomes necessary.