Masosha – Social Science And Health

In the United States there are 17,000 nursing homes with a total of 1.8 million beds. Slightly over 5% of the 65+ population reside in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, congregate care or boarding homes, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population estimates show that these numbers will continue to rise drastically for the next 30 years as the baby boomers (1946-1964), the largest segment of the population move into their 70s and 80s. For those families with loved ones already in nursing homes, it is very important that they reach out to their loved ones especially during the holiday season. Below are several tips for helping your loved ones cope with being in a nursing home.

1. Visit
It is estimated that 60% of nursing home residents have no visitors. If you live in the area you are encouraged to visit your loved one, even if only for an hour or so. Sit with them, hold their hand and spend some quality time.

2. Share memories
If you do visit be sure to bring old family pictures. Sit with your loved one and go through the family albums. For many seniors these memories from their childhood and young adulthood are the last memories to fade with age. Listen to their wonderful stories and share some of your memories as well.

3. Keep them up to date
Make sure to share any good news with your loved ones. Tell them about the birth of any new family members, weddings, job promotions etc. Send pictures if you can so they can still feel like part of the family.

4. Call
Some family members don’t live locally and can’t visit regularly. However, call the facility and have them put your relative on the phone. Try to be mindful of the nursing home schedule as many residents have to be transported to the dining room for meals and/or may need assistance with eating their meals. Try to avoid calling during meal times if at all possible. Residents also participate in speech and physical therapy and attend social activities so they may be out of their room. Try to call back if you don’t reach them the first few times. Even if your loved one has a hearing impairment try and talk to them on the phone briefly. The staff can let them know you called and they will feel loved and remembered.

5. Send a small care package
Everyone loves gifts! Try to send your loved one something for the holiday from the family. Remember it doesn’t have to be anything extravagant because it really is the thought that counts. Family photos (plastic frames), a shawl, baseball cap, small throw blanket, pajamas, housedress, and warm socks are wonderful gifts ideas and not expensive.

The most efficient e-health evaluation framework is based on several criteria. They serve as tools to enable the development of successful e-health initiatives because they assist the healthcare organization in identifying and thus addressing multiple areas of concern.

In order to reveal the full value of e-health initiatives, which are dictated by complex regulations, a certain criterion has to be selected when analyzing a specific e-health service. The group of criteria employed in the evaluation of the mentioned field is divided into three classes depending on the technical dimension, the economic dimension, holdem rules and the social dimension. Hence the three categories of criteria are: usability, direct costs and benefits and trust.

- The set of usability criteria – it represents perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; the first is defined as the degree to which an individual considers using a particular system is free of effort, whereas the latter refers to the degree to which one thinks that resorting to a particular system enhances one’s performance. In order to assess the extent of usability the following notions have to be taken into consideration: accessibility, compatibility, functionality, user’s satisfaction, user interface. All these represent assets of the usability principle. In the field of e-health services, these notions are applied to the technologies used by the healthcare system.

- Criteria of costs and benefits – the cost-benefit analysis is based on the concept of relative advantage, which denominates the degree to which an innovation is considered to be superior to its predecessor. Some specialists criticized this set of criteria as being limited because they target only direct tangible costs and benefits and are based only on accounting and financial instruments. Applied to the e-health services, these standards evaluate the efficiency of e-commerce with products and services provided by the earlier mentioned domain.

- The trust criteria – seen as a crucial property of information systems that offer e-services, trust can be defined as the willingness of an individual or group to be vulnerable to the actions of a party based on the expectation that the latter will perform a certain action important for the former, regardless of the ability to monitor and control the trustee. Applied to e-health, the trust criteria is tightly related to the security and confidentiality of medical data.

The usability criteria is associated with the technological dimension, the criteria of costs and benefits corresponds to the economic dimension, whereas the trust criteria is related to the social play free casino dimension.