Community Engagement and Elderly Care at Catholic Health Care

Community engagement is a general term for people who unite to form interest groups (Durey et al., 2016). Community engagement intends to tackle a problem facing a specific group of individuals in the community. The engagement platforms improve the health and well-being of the targeted people. Partnership and collaboration are critical elements of community engagement as they influence systems and mobilize resources towards proper service delivery to the vulnerable (Hurley et al., 2016). Recent research has also shown that the practice improves both health research and promotion. Community engagement tackles the economic and social determinants of health. This report will reflect on my community engagement placement at the Catholic health care. It will focus on the audience that I served which are the aged people with Dementia, mental health patients, and palliative care. The paper will also discuss the purpose, alignment, recommendation, and reflection on the practice.

I assisted the Catholic healthcare staff to serve in the aged care and vulnerable old citizens. The audience falls into three categories including short-term respite care, palliative care, and dementia-specific care. Respite care involves assisting the carers of the elderly and sick individuals to look after the vulnerable groups (Gresham, Heffernan, and Brodaty, 2018). I supported the elderly individuals by cooking their favorite foods and preparing their bedroom before sleeping time. I also kept them company by spending time with them.

The Catholic healthcare based in Surry Hills, Sidney also provides dementia care for the affected individuals. Dementia is a mental disorder that impairs the reasoning capacity of individuals and also leads to short and long-term memory loss (Bush, Fink, and Lei, 2016). I helped the caregivers at the health facility to design the rooms in favor of the patients. Additionally, I fitted calendars in those rooms to remind the dementia patients about upcoming events and community functions.

Apart from respite, and dementia care, I participated in offering palliative care to elderly individuals. Palliative care involves attending to individuals with life-limiting complications like heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. I comforted and supported the patients with end-of-life complications. I advised the friends and family members of the patients to accept the conditions of the patients and show compassion towards them. Furthermore, I talked to the patients to meet their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.

The organization provides a variety of resources and support to elderly individuals. Therefore, the caregivers address a majority of customer needs like spiritual and emotional necessities. However, the facility fails to send a few requirements of the clients. Firstly, the facility provides accommodation and support for every senior citizen. Secondly, proper nutrition is available to improve the health and wellbeing of the patients. Relevant meals reduce the chances of malnutrition complication to the clients in the facility (Porter, Haines, and Truby, 2017).

Practice Alignment with Community Engagement Theory

The needs addressed by the organization include the spiritual, emotional, and physical requirements of the patients, their friends, and family members. The palliative care unit offers to counsel to the relations of individuals having the chronic complications. The dementia department has designed programs that assist the patients to retain their memory. Some of the remedies include a physical exercise session and ringing bells to remind patients about certain activities (Dewing, and Dijk, 2016). The organization meets the above needs to ensure a comfortable stay for elderly clients.

I found out that the facility should focus on the desire of the elderly individuals and their actual will. I realized that the caring system was uniform and did not focus on the perspective of each. A section of dementia patients finds physical exercise to be tedious and unhealthy for them. Therefore, the remedy does not fit their need to retain both short and long-term memory at the organization.

I found out that the practices at the health facility align with the community engagement theory. The caregivers’ line of duty concurs with the social innovation theory and that of reciprocity. Social innovation is a new concept that attempts to address the social needs of a specific group of vulnerable individuals (Tuczek, Castka, and Wakolbinger, 2018). The Catholic health care facility has designed programs and rooms to meet the needs of the dementia patients. The caregivers maintain the items in the room at a fixed location due to the patients’ memory disorders. Additionally, the organization has psychiatrists, and spiritual leaders to address the emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and family members at the palliative care.

The practices at the organization also conform to the theory of social reciprocity. Offering a positive response to the desired action forms the basis of reciprocity (Velez, 2015). The organization is friendly to elderly patients as it provides a favorable environment for recovery and end-of-life care. The patients of dementia respond by showing improvement in their ability to retain both short and long-term memory. The exemplary services at the palliative care comfort the patients, their friends, and family, and family members. Therefore, the clients have admitted that they lead a happy life even though their loved ones have chronic complications. The subtle gestures by the caregivers make the facility environment to favor the recovery of patients.

The organization should improve on certain aspects to improve the community engagement in its services. The facility should improve the internal and external environment of the patients. The administration should recruit security officers to protect patients from any interior or exterior harm. The Catholic center should also ensure that no noise pollution can disrupt the stay of the elderly individuals at the facility.

Recommendations for Improving Community Engagement at the Facility

The facility should also improve its interaction with the audience to facilitate the recovery process. The administration should accord the patients the opportunity to offer suggestions on the various methods of nursing interventions. The nurses should be friendly towards the patients and listen to their complaints (Zugai, Stein-Parbury, and Roche, 2015).

The organization should improve its interaction with the volunteers like the students on placement programs and other stakeholders. The facility should allow the volunteers to participate in the activities of the organization fully. The administrator of the facility can also pay stipends to the volunteers to motivate them. Furthermore, the caregivers should be friendly and welcome suggestions from the community engagement individuals (Richardson, Percy, and Hughes, 2015).

The health facility should improve the condition of the rooms and employ specialists from the community and other areas. The facility administrator should recruit a variety of spiritual leaders to meet the needs of the family members whose relatives are undergoing palliative care. The patient rooms should contain requirements for both the patients and the volunteers.

The experience of attending to elderly patients shaped my values, assumptions, attitudes, and skills. After my placement, I have developed the moral values of beneficence, autonomy, and nonmaleficence. A caregiver should respect the ethical principles to ensure quality attention to elderly patients (Doody, and Noonan, 2016). An example is providing adequate information to the client to enable them to make an informed decision on treatment.

The field exposure has also corrected my previous assumptions about caring for the senior citizens. Before the attachment, I thought that the symptoms of dementia are irreversible through any medical or nursing remedies. I also did not believe in the concept and benefits of respite care. However, with appropriate solutions, the caregivers can reduce the symptoms of dementia (Luckett et al., 2017). Additionally, respite care is beneficial to both the patient and the carers.

The placement at the Catholic health care center has also shaped my attitudes towards the senior citizens. Before the experience, I thought that it is difficult to look after the elderly patients. I also thought that palliative care is an impossible venture. However, I know realize that caring for elderly patients is a simple task, and end-of-life care is the reality.

I have learned various skills from the carers at the facility of my placement. I can now make a room to be dementia-friendly to the victims. Additionally, I can conduct palliative counseling to the victims and the patients.  I can also perform respite care to the senior citizens.

Reflection on Learnings and Skill Development

Conclusion

Community Engagement unites people in interest groups that tackle social problems facing specific people in the community. The Catholic health care center was my placement area where the customers were the senior citizens. I assisted the nurses to attend to a patient of dementia and to offer both respite and palliative care. The organization addresses the needs of the patients by designing the rooms to suit elderly patients. The services of the organization are in tandem with the theory of social innovation and reciprocity. The two methods of community engagement facilitate the recovery of the patients. The facility should improve its interaction with the audience and the volunteers to enhance the quality of service delivery. My placement at the facility shaped my attitude, skills, attitude, and assumptions towards elderly individuals. I can now offer quality care to senior citizens. Both palliative and respite care are essential nursing remedies for elderly patients.

References

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