The Best Service: 5 Aged Care Challenges & How To Overcome Them

Aged care is truly one of the most rewarding roles a person can undertake. You deliver a vital service for an elderly Aussie whilst ensuring they remain active, social and part of the community. It’s a commendable role that deserves full recognition. However, as any support worker will know, it does come with its challenges, and these require effective strategies to overcome.

Here, we are going to discuss five common aged care challenges and, with proper planning, they can be overcome:

1. Managing chronic health conditions

The best aged care services Campbelltown has understands that caring for chronic health conditions is imperative in this role. Many elderly Australians experience chronic health conditions that require constant attention and treatment.

Therefore, it’s important to have the following plans in place to overcome any challenges they provide:

• A care plan: Working alongside healthcare professionals can help develop a specialised plan that can ensure your participant is properly looked after in regards to their condition.
  
• Medication management: Medication management – a plan for taking the right medication at the right time – is imperative to managing chronic conditions.
  
• Health monitoring: It’s vital to monitor your participant’s health on an ongoing basis as they may experience drastic changes that require immediate attention.

2. Providing autonomy

It’s important for many elderly Aussies to maintain a sense of autonomy where possible. Naturally, if they experience a chronic condition, they will require a higher degree of care. But it can be possible to assist in providing a higher level of autonomy if the participant is up to it.

This can be done through assessing their needs and understanding where you should provide support and where you can allow your participant to live more autonomously.

3. Managing cognitive decline

Cognitive decline is a serious challenge for your participant and it also presents a significant challenge for you as their carer. The most imperative thing when it comes to managing cognitive decline is to provide a supportive environment and one that feels safe and comfortable for your participant. This can include using visual cues to support memory and navigation, encourage social interaction and provide reassurance for your participant if they become anxious or agitated.

4. Looking after personal hygiene

Many elderly Australians may overlook their personal hygiene. Therefore, as a carer, it is important that you create a plan to help ensure that they look after their personal hygiene. This can be done through creating a hygiene plan, including scheduled trips to the bathroom and assistance with bathing. Your participant may also experience incontinence, in which case it’s important to create an incontinence plan which can  address your participant’s specific bathroom needs and may also involve the use of sanitary products.

5. Helping with social isolation

One of the more unfortunate aspects of ageing is a growing sense of social isolation and loneliness. Many elderly Australians report feelings of significant loneliness and this is something that requires ongoing support to overcome. Therefore, you might like to encourage your participant to stay involved in their community through activities like community groups, sports and volunteering at the local op shop. Any of these endeavours alone can go a long way to helping your participant remain an important and welcome part of the community.
Aged care challenges can be daunting. But they can also be overcome through proper planning and assistance. Ensure that you are there for your participant to help them with the challenges they are facing as this is the ultimate imperative for providing top quality aged care!