Evaluate older adults’ ability to take care of themselves

Assess the condition of an older patient and decide if he or she needs assistance in taking care of him- or herself to eat or to bathe and in meeting his/hers social and psychological needs.

assess the condition of older adults regarding their ability to take care of themselves
assess autonomy of older adults
evaluate older adults’ abilities to take care of themselves
evaluate ability of older adults to take care of themselves
evaluate senior citizens’ ability to take care of themselves

skill/competence

cross-sector

Evaluate older adults’ ability to take care of themselves is an essential skill of the following occupations:

Home care aide: Home care aides provide personal assistance and promote autonomy, on a daily basis to individuals who are unable to take care of themselves due to illness, ageing or disability. They assist them with personal hygiene, feeding, communication or medication according to the health care professional’s instructions.
Gerontology social worker: Gerontology social workers provide assistance to elderly individuals and their families helping them to cope with their biopsychosocial needs. They help connecting the elderly with community resources by gathering information about the array of services available to them. Gerontology social workers assess their clients’ needs, functional capacity and health problems and liaise with medical professionals when necessary.
Residential home older adult care worker: Residential home older adult care workers counsel and support elderly who have physical or mental disabilities. They monitor their progress and provide them with care in a positive living environment. They liaise with the clients’ families in order to arrange their visits.
Homelessness worker: Homelessness workers provide on-the-spot assistance, counselling and advice to people who have housing problems or live on the streets. They present them with services available to homeless people starting from hostel vacancies to financial aid services. They may have to cope with persons with mental health problems, addictions or victims of domestic or sexual abuse.
Military welfare worker: Military welfare workers assist families in coping with the deployment in the military of a family member by supporting them through the adjustment process of leaving and returning of the family member. They help teenagers go through the fear of loosing their parents to the military or not recognising their parents at their return. Military and veterans social workers help veterans to re-adapt to civilian life and help them manage sufferings, trauma disorders or griefs.
Mental health social worker: Mental health social workers assist and provide counselling to people with mental, emotional, or substance abuse problems. They focus on providing personalised support to cases and monitor the recovery process of their clients by providing therapy, crisis intervention, client advocacy and education. Mental health social workers may contribute to mental health services improvement and mental health outcomes for citizens.
Palliative care social worker: Palliative care social workers provide assistance and counselling to patients with a chronic or a terminal disease and their families with the practical arrangements. They arrange the required medical care for the patient and help the family to adjust to the diagnosis by providing support and attention to their emotional needs, helping them to understand their options.
Adult community care worker: Adult community care workers perform assessment and care management of communities of adults who live with physical impairments or convalescing states. They aim to improve their life in the community and enable them to live safely and independently at their own home.
Community social worker: Community social workers help people in disadvantage or excluded from society to change their situation and handle their integration problems. They work with communities focusing on specific groups. Community social workers liaise closely with social workers, schools, local authorities and probation officers representing people before policy makers at local and national level.
Rehabilitation support worker: Rehabilitation support workers provide counselling to individuals dealing with birth defects or with major consequences caused by diseases, accidents, and burnouts. They help them to cope with personal, social and vocational issues. They assess the personal needs of clients, develop rehabilitation plans, get involved in the training, and help people undergoing a rehabilitation plan with job placement.
Care at home worker: Care at home workers provide domiciliary services to vulnerable adults including frail elderly or disabled people who are living with physical impairment or convalescing. They aim to improve their lives in the community and assure patients can live safely and independently in their own home.

Evaluate older adults’ ability to take care of themselves is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this skill may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Social worker: Social workers are practice-based professionals who promote social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. They interact with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities in order to provide various forms of therapy and counselling, group work, and community work. Social workers guide people to use services to claim benefits, access community resources, find jobs and training, obtain legal advice or deal with other local authority departments.
Hospital social worker: Hospital social workers provide counselling to patients and their families helping them to better cope with the illness, the emotions surrounding diagnosis, and with social and financial problems. They work in cooperation with doctors, nurses and other health professionals sensitising them on the emotional aspects of a patient. They act as link between patients and medical staff. Hospital social workers also support the patients and their families with the discharge from the hospital.
Social care worker: Social care workers provide support and help people with care services. They help people to live full and valued lives in the community. They assist babies, young children, adolescents, adults and older adults.They attend to the psychological, social, emotional and physical needs of service users. They work in a large variety of settings with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities.
Social services manager: Social services managers have the responsibility for strategic and operational leadership and management of staff teams and resources within and or across social services. They are responsible for the implementation of legislation and policies relating to, for example, decisions about vulnerable people. They promote social work and social care values and ethics, equality and diversity, and relevant codes guiding practice. They are responsible for liaising with other professionals in criminal justice, education and health. They can be responsible for contributing to local and national policy development.
Healthcare assistant: Healthcare assistants work together in a team with registered nurses within the occupational fields of nursing, care and maintenance of people of all age-groups in all diverse acute care settings as well as in primary care environments.
Elderly home manager: Elderly home managers oversee, plan, organise and evaluate the provision of elderly care services for people who are in need of these services due to the effects of ageing. They manage the elderly care home and supervise the activities of the staff.
Personal trainer: Personal trainers design, implement and evaluate exercise or physical activity programmes for one or more individual clients by collecting and analysing client information. They strive to ensure the effectiveness of personal exercise programmes. A personal trainer should also actively encourage potential clients to participate in and adhere to regular programmes, employing appropriate motivational strategies.

References

1. Evaluate older adults’ ability to take care of themselves – ESCO