by Laura Garcia

Should we send our aged parents to a Nursing Home? 

It’s a good question, and many of us will have to face it at some stage in the future.The once casual and carefree relationship we’ve enjoyed with our parents is coming to an end. They’ve grown old and they’re in poor health. And so as we once looked to them for help and support, the tables have turned. They’re looking to us, and it’s our turn to provide the help and support that they need. But now is when the problem arrives, are we doing the correct thing sending them to a Nursing Home or should we keep them with us living all in the same household. According to the 1997 National Nursing Home Survey, there were 1,465,000 residents age 65 and older in nursing homes (about 4.3 percent of the US population age 65 and older in 1997). There are several people that send their parents to a “Home Care” thinking that they will get all the help and support that they need, But is this true? Periodically the media highlights the deplorable absence of care in badly managed nursing homes. This is a horrible thing therefore for those considering the option of sending their parents to this types of institutions should investigate before placing them into it. I said those because in my particular case I don’t picture myself telling my mother that I have decided to send her to a Home Care. I don’t think there is something wrong with it, but would they be happy to hear that they are going to be sent by their children to a Home Care? In my particular case my decision would be influence by my culture and original values and customs. Traditionally in my family adults hardly ever live separate from their parents. In addition to that , in order to send them to a Nursing home or some other similar institutions the family needs to have a pretty decent economic stability . I was reading an article and  the average annual cost of care in a nursing home in 1998 was about $56,000 or $ 153.00 per day. Total national expenditures for nursing home care in 1998 amounted to $78.6 billion. These are very high amount for working class families , but whatever the decision we made what should be important is not to abandon them. They need and want the emotional and spiritual support that only we can provide.  

4 Responses to “by Laura Garcia”

  1. regina szy says:

    While thinking nursing homes can be bad keep in mind how hard, time consuming, and costly having live in parents, or grand parents can be. If you as a home care giver become stressed financially,emotionally, perhaps even resentful. What kind of care will you be providing? I don’t believe as a society we have “cast out” our elderly, there just becomes a time. I have had my mother living with me a year and 8 months an my grand mother (age 90) for 8 months. This has been a wonderful thing, but they have lived their lives free of the burden (and it can be). Shouldn’t we be able to do the same? I have already made the request to my son (old enough to understand) to PLEASE put me in a nursing home. I would never want him to spend his adult life caring for me.

  2. student says:

    I am glad that my subject interested you. As a society we all have different customs, values and believes, and of course, each of us has their own opinion. Also, there are different scenarios. Sometimes they have serious functional or cognitive disabilities or medical problems and they will require professional medical care.In this case, maybe we wouldn’t have more options, but also keep in mind that they took care of us when we needed them, they gave us live, so why not take care of them when they need us.

  3. student says:

    In other countries, nursing homes do not even exist. In the middle east the older children in a household take turns caring for the elderly. Having your folks around should not be viewed as a ‘burden’, although that is the typical American consensus. If there is a serious medical condition I can see the need for possibly a care center but outside of that, your parents gave you life and raised you, the least you can do is help them in their elderly years. Nursing homes, from what I have seen, are morbid and depressing places; not where I want my parents spending the rest of their elderly years.
    -W3573Y

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