¶ … Care Case Study Slide 1 Footnotes

There have been enormous changes due to introduction of various cultural elements in the continuum of care. Before, when people were admitted to assisted living facilities or hospital settings, there were very little cultural elements outside of the majority culture which had sponsored the facility. For example, if a facility was associated with some sort of church or temple, there were elements of that religion present, but there was little alternatives for members of other cultures or religions.

Yet, today, there are now a much wider array of cultural elements available in assisted living homes and hospital facilities. Assisted living programs are regulated on the level of the state.

As such, different states have different types of programs and policies that impact the degree to which cultural characteristics are included or excluded within various assisted living facilities. Some programs encourage cultural elements of patients to be brought into the assisted living environment and have administrative bodies work to generate programs and offerings that appeal to certain cultures. In such cases, administrators work from the top down to provide various cultural or religious services to their residents, who can opt to participate or not to participate.

In other cases, it is left to the patients themselves to bring in their own cultural elements into their assisted living facilities. This was the case of Ruby and Irving, who were instrumental in their assisted living facility offering Jewish activities and religious rites, even though the population of Jewish patients in their specific facility was relatively low.

The majority culture is also changing the way it views these types of living situations. Before, assisted living homes were seen as drab and a dreary place to live by many outside of them. Today, the culture is embracing new ideas about assisted living because of changes in the design and philosophies of many of the facilities available today. For example, many facilities are now taking on a more resort-like feeling. This gives their residents a much higher quality of life,...

With much more activities and amenities, these facilities are now evolving in terms of how the majority culture views them. As changes in technology continue to make life in such facilities more enjoyable, future generations will be much more accepting of life in such facilities than past generations.
Slide 2 Footnotes

Previous generations witnessed situations where there were little alternatives for elderly patients than to enter into hospitals or intensive assisted living facilities. With technology being so far from where it is today, living at home or with family meant that it would reduce the quality of care available on a daily basis, and could even be a threat to a patient's life. As such, most philosophies of the past were geared towards admitting patients to more formal facilities in order to provide them with the highest quality of care, even though it was not always the best living environment for patients to be in.

Yet, advances in technology have drastically changed the nature of modern caretaking.

As organizations like Medicare begin adapting new policies to evolve with the rapidly changing technology, it is becoming more evident than ever that the philosophies of technology-based living have also progressed at every level of healthcare, from the individual physician all the way up to federal healthcare organizations. Organizations like Medicare have pushed forth new philosophies that shift the majority of elderly patient care away from formal institutions and into the community, so that family members or at-home caretakers can begin to take over the majority of the responsibilities with the help of technology.

This helps reducing mounting costs of keeping patients in hospitals, but also gives the patients in question a much higher quality of life without interrupting the care they need. Technology-based living has helped empower elderly citizens to enjoy more freedom and independence in their lives, without having to…