Essay Sample on How the Institutions Traumatize the Elderly Population

The poster by the name How the institutions traumatize the elderly population and How Canada by Aisah, Adelaide, and Ify acknowledges that Canada, just like any other industries country, is encountering an increase in the number of gaining population who have been under the care of long- term care institutions. What is troubling is that the Canadian government has done nothing to increase the number of these facilities to cater to the increased population of older people. The primary consequence of an increasingly aged population and the inability to expand long-term care facilities is the traumatization of the aged population. The aged population ends up suffering from mental, spiritual k, emotional, and physical challenges due to a lack of proper trauma-informed care. The poster claims that trauma has severe implications to the victims. Trauma is linked with PTSD and the prevalence is high among older adults.

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Cause of the Trauma among Elderly Population

In practice, though, it is usually tricky to determine the reasons for abuse or neglect identified in an institutional context have been caused by a person's acts or through institutional failings since the two are regularly found together. The range of abuse and neglect within care facilities spans a sizeable since the two are usually found together. Qualls (2016) asserts that may be associated with any of the below:

• Problems with employees, for instance, work-associated stress and staff burnout, inadequate training, physical working conditions, psychological challenges among team
• The provision of care- for example, resistance to change in geriatric medicine, insufficient nutrition and deficient nursing care such as inattentiveness to pressure sores
• Difficulties in staff- resident interactions for instance fierceness on the side of residents and cultural differences and poor communication
• Organizational policies-for instance, those that function for the benefit of the institution, offering residents few varieties over day-to-day living; unsympathetic or bureaucratic approaches towards residents; staff scarcities or high employee turnover; lack of a resident's council, fraud involving resident's money or possession.

What Other Nations Are Doing

The post also consists of a section that gives recommendations of what Canada as government can do to stop the abuse. The authors suggest needs the institutions of Canada for long-term care to promote prevention measures, use of the three frameworks to prevent traumatization; home -care community care, and specialized care, and, reinforce policies that can maximize attention given by long- term institutions

Further, the poster offers an overview of what other countries do to promote the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of older adults. It has provided a summary of two countries Netherlands and Japan. For instance, according to Aisha, Adelaide, and Ify Japan uses mall home care to minimize traumatization of institutions

The Current System of Canada

The poster point several faults found in the current system of long- care in Canada some of these flaws are absence of cultural humanity with trauma-informed care, overfunding PSTD treatment instead of funding preventive measure and programs of PSTD , and deficiencies of a clear standard of how to incorporate trauma-informed care in long-term care

Application of the Trauma-Informed Framework to Address Practice

Adjusting organizational, personal, and professional principles to accommodate a trauma-informed framework will change the healthcare system. Significantly, organizations and staff should consider the value of incorporating well- informed trauma principles in their day-to-day operations. The following are trauma-informed principles recommended for trauma facilities

Communication

Organizational level

Facilities need the support of its management for the process to be a success, formulating a plan that encourages the staff to be a part of the process can make the incorporation of this framework easier. The management will be required to put in place strategies that will enhance the communicating system present in the organization for both the older adults and the staff.

Personal level

The staff is advised to be receptive and keep the communication lines open to ensure that the senior adults are free to express their thoughts. Individually, the employees should be collaborating with the facility to communicate on issues affecting the facility openly.

Professional level

Fundamentally, the staff understands that they are working with older adults and not for them; with this mindset, communication will be enhanced. Confidentiality and privacy should be upheld at times; during interactions with workmates and other older adults, information concerning other senior adults should be carefully shared to evade privacy invasion and confidentiality breach.

Safe Environment Organizational level

Trauma is accompanied by emotional, mental, and physical frustrations. Establishing a safe setting is significant for an organization. Ways of creating a harmless environment are:

• Physical Setting
• Maintaining ordinary spaces like bathrooms and parking lots.
• Creating specific areas for smoking.;
• Keeping records on exits and arrivals of patients and visitors to avoid unwelcomed individuals.
• Create a quiet environment
• The building should have bigger rooms and clearly labeled entrance and exits

Personal level

The staff should strive to create a welcoming environment for older adults and patients. Making sure, they feel respected and valued.

Staff should establish and maintain boundaries by separating their personal lives and their work.

Each member of the staff must have an open mind to accommodate various beliefs and cultural practices of the clients.

Professional level

The staff is obligated to use kind language while interacting with older adults. All employees should make an effort to show interest in understanding what the senior adults need to feel more comfortable in their surroundings and to avoid the thought of discrimination on the clients' side. Staff should keep time to maintain a form of routine. Also, the should provide critical information when mandatory. Employees are expected to pay attention to patients' beliefs and culture, and it affects trauma.

Secondary Traumatic Stress

A constant interaction between patients and staff increases the chances of both parties getting secondary traumatic stress. This occurs when employees and the traumatized senior adults hear traumatic experiences," emotional duress.

Organizational level

If the facility fails to attend to its staff, the possibility of having traumatized employees is very high. The quality of service will be affected, and the overall health of the facility will be at stake. The facility is advised to develop therapeutically based programs for both the staff and the older adults.

Personal level

Employees are advised to spend time reflecting, meditating, taking yoga classes, and interacting with each other to prevent secondary trauma. Awareness that everyone is responsible for creating their safety mentally.

Professional level

During interactions with the traumatized elder adults, the staff should be aware of their safety, and if at any instance they feel violated, they should report to the concerned department.

Treatment Process Organizational level

Facilities should recruit competent staff that has specialized in caring for older adults and patients. The hiring process should contain specific variables: work background and experience. Although the trauma-informed process is still new to many, the clinical practices are known to transform the efficiency of providing health care to the patients.

Personal level

The clinical staff must understand that they not obligated to fix the older adults but help them regain normalcy in mental, emotional, and physical aspects. Individual self-care is significant in maintaining a healthy work record.

Professional level

Older adults appreciate been included in treatment plans, and they prefer having a say in the mode treatment they are going to receive. The clinical staff should create a habit of spending more time with the senior adults and get to learn their preferences when it comes to treatment. They are required to explain at length the type of medication the recommend and why. It is an objective for the clinicians to come to an understanding of the treatment they should provide so that the client is satisfied with the procedure.

Screening for Trauma

Even though screening is the most crucial part of clinical principles, there is a lot of controversy on the subject. The process of how to conduct the detection is a sensitive one because it is difficult to detect at an early stage. This aspect of the framework is essential for creating guidelines for treatment relating to different people. Universal screening is recommended for every society, and it is frequently done by asking the population to answer some questions to understand their history with the condition. A score will establish the severity of the trauma and lay a foundation for treatment to commence. However, experts suggest that before screening is done the following aspects should be considered;

Medical based

Sincere, universal screening is more efficient in a healthcare setting, and it should later be done on frequency grounds. It is beneficial to the senior adults. Clinicians should ascertain that they can provide befitting healthcare if any instances of the trauma are reported.

Re-screening

Repeatedly re-screening can boost the possibility of re-traumatization. The senior adults might have to go through the same traumatizing experience during screening.

Adequate Training Precedes the Screening

Health care providers are required to hire employees who are skilled in trauma screening and performing proper follow-up procedures with older adults with other pre-existing conditions that need attention.

Partnering Organizations

Persons with trauma frequently have emotional, physical, health, and moral requirements. Older adults with trauma are not an exception. Facilities that deal with traumatized patients are required to be able to provide the support that the senior adult may need. If for any reason, they fail to offer them, then they are expected to refer the clients to another facility that is capable of attending to all their needs. Appropriate care is fundamental for the mental, emotional, and physical health of older adults. Facilities in a particular society must work together to build up the trauma-informed recommendation system. Engaging them to contribute training and hosting society universal trauma-informed care training, this will enhance long-term transformation in senior adult care.

Recommendations

At the most level, significance that is more consideration must be committed to primary prevention measures. Creating awareness needs formulation of a society in which older individuals are permitted to live out their lives in dignity, sufficiently offered with the necessities of life and with since chances for self- fulfillment. Prevention begins with awareness (Sendecki, 2016). One substantial way to raise awareness- both amongst concerned professionals and the public - is through training and education. Those offering health care and social services at local, national, and community levels should be trained on the detection of trauma among the aged. The media are a second powerful tool for raising awareness of the problem and its possible solutions, among the public as well as the authorities.