Older adults’ needs

The physical, mental, and social needs of frail, older adults.

older adult’s needs
elderly people’s needs
needs of elderly patients

knowledge

cross-sector

Older adults’ needs is an essential knowledge 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.
Community care case worker: Community care case workers perform assessment and care management. They organise domiciliary services to support vulnerable adults who are living with physical impairment or convalescing, aiming to improve their lives in the community and enabling them to live safely and independently at their own home.
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.
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.

Older adults’ needs is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this knowledge may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Legal guardian: Legal guardians legally assist and support minor children, mentally disabled persons or incapacitated older adults in their personal life. They can manage their property, help with daily financial administration and assist with the ward’s medical or social needs.
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.
Homeopath: Homeopaths treat clients based on the selection and prescription of homeopathic remedies using the homeopathy principle of “like cures like.”
 
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.
Auxiliary nursing and midwifery vocational teacher: Auxiliary nursing and midwifery vocational teachers instruct students in their specialised field of study, auxiliary nursing and midwifery, which is predominantly practical in nature. They provide theoretical instruction in service of the practical skills and techniques the students must subsequently master. Auxiliary nursing and midwifery vocational teachers monitor the students’ progress, assist individually when necessary, and evaluate their knowledge and performance on the subject of auxiliary nursing and midwifery through assignments, tests and examinations.
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.
Patient transport services driver: Patient transport services drivers transfer disabled, vulnerable and elderly patients to and from health care facilities such as hospitals or social care settings. They drive the ambulance and maintain all the related equipment but under non-emergency circumstances.
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.
Complementary therapist: Complementary therapists use a range of complementary and alternative therapies to work simultaneously with the clients` body, mind, and spirit in a holistic approach. They offer practices and services for holistic wellbeing, health maintenance, health education, health promotion and prevention of illness, along with the sustainable treatment of certain illnesses, especially chronic illnesses. Their practices include but are not limited to acupuncture, aromatherapy, banotherapy, homeopathy, and herbal medicine.
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. Older adults’ needs – ESCO