MIH-CP teams can support older adults aging in place in several ways. First, they can help evaluate a person’s home environment and make it more conducive to healthy living. Second, they can take an active role in the person’s health management, ensuring that their care is delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible. Finally, MIH teams can treat and monitor many chronic conditions outside the hospital, allowing people to remain where they are most comfortable: their homes.
MIH-CP and Aging in Place: How Mobile Integrated Healthcare Can Help
Aging in place is about keeping people in a comfortable environment as they grow older. This is in contrast to the popular idea that people should be placed in care homes as they age. Of course, there is a place for both; however, there is some evidence that aging in place offers unique benefits.
A few obvious benefits include memory and mobility. If you have someone who is already struggling with memory or movement as they age, and then you move them to a new environment, you are introducing a lot of stress into that person’s life. At home, they were familiar with where they stored their medications, how they used the bathroom, and when and where they got their meals.
Certainly, many of these things are taken care of in assisted living facilities (or other live-in institutions), but that doesn’t change the fact that this causes real stress for people. Aside from the practical concerns (trying to remember where they store their medications), moving aging adults into an unfamiliar environment can also have psychological impacts.
With all that being said, this article is not meant to be a pros and cons debate about aging in place; rather, it will highlight some of the benefits of aging in place and discuss how mobile integrated healthcare-community paramedicine can be a prime facilitator.
Here is what we will cover:
- Community Paramedics Help People Aging in Place by Managing Their Environment
- Mobile Integrated Healthcare Supports Aging in Place by Organizing Care for Older Adults
- MIH-CP Works to Support People Aging in Place by Providing Follow-up Visits and Vital Sign Trending
- Community Paramedics can Help Support People Who Are Lonely or Experiencing Social Isolation
- Mobile Integrated Healthcare Works to Build a Strong Care Network for People Aging-in-Place
Let’s look at each of these points in more detail. We’ll lay out some nuances and discuss how MIH tries to address them.
Community Paramedics Help People Aging in Place by Managing Their Environment
The first step we all take when moving anywhere is to ensure that the environment is safe and secure. If you move to a new apartment, you take the time to ensure that it has everything you need. If you buy a new house, you ensure it is carefully inspected and safe to live in.
When someone is ageing in their home, MIH treats it as if they were starting a new journey. The difference is that, instead of their home changing, they are changing and their environment must adapt.
At this stage in someone’s life, when a person begins to have trouble with stairs or difficulty getting in and out of the shower, many people jump to what seems like an obvious conclusion: I guess it’s time to look into assisted living/nursing homes.
However, many people don’t realize that modern technology allows us to adapt the home environment to be safer for the patient. And that’s what MIH does to help people aging in place. They go to the patient’s home and ensure it is safe and secure, with the resources needed for healthy aging.
This means that the community paramedic will look for handlebars in hallways and bathrooms, ramps around stairs, and pull-cords or push-button alerts that allow someone to call for help if needed.
In many cases, community senior services can install these safety tools for the patient. The idea is to reduce the burden on the people and improve their chances of aging safely.
Mobile Integrated Healthcare Supports Aging in Place by Organizing Care for Older Adults
Another way that MIH-CP supports aging in place is by taking an active role in managing a person’s care. With all the doctors that line up to help a person with various ailments as they age, it can sometimes feel like a full-time job for that patient to manage all their needs.
They have to coordinate with the eye clinic, the cardiologist, their neurologist, their immunologist, and, not to mention, their primary care physician. On top of that, people with chronic diseases have to manage their medications and ensure they have the time and transportation to make their doctor’s appointments.
All of these things can be managed, at least in part, by a strong MIH team. Community paramedics can keep careful records in their databases and ensure that the patient knows where they need to be and has the necessary transportation to get there.
In some cases, the community paramedic can facilitate in-home video calls, allowing physicians to evaluate their patients without an in-person visit.
MIH-CP Works to Support People Aging in Place by Providing Follow-up Visits and Vital Sign Trending
Another way MIH teams help people aging in place is by taking an active role in their clinical care. This means that, outside of just supporting them in care coordination, they can actually provide direct care themselves.
One way that community paramedic/MIH teams make a big impact is by providing regular check-ups and vital sign trending. The “mobile” aspect of MIH teams means that they can visit people more often and ensure that all checks stay on a regular schedule.
The data gathered by community paramedics during these visits can then be sent to the corresponding physician. With an active approach like this, community paramedics can help prevent minor illnesses from becoming bigger problems. Most community paramedics will also be trained to take action if someone’s vital signs are outside normal limits.
Indeed, in some areas, aging in place has been taken to “hospital at home” programs, where not only does the patient receive evaluation and routine check-ups in their homes, but also some more advanced medical procedures.
Community Paramedics can Help Support People Who Are Lonely or Experiencing Social Isolation
One of the reasons that many people seek to live in an assisted living community is to avoid being alone. Indeed, there are cases where assisted living can provide a satisfying social life for people getting older; however, much of this depends on the person’s beliefs and situation.
There are many cases, particularly in rural areas of the country, where even if a person wanted to move to an assisted living facility, the resources just aren’t available. In these cases, the person is at risk of suffering social isolation and loneliness that can lead to worsening of any current health conditions while also being a risk factor for depression.
Community paramedics can provide support by serving as a reliable contact for people to call, while also connecting people with professional mental health providers and social workers when needed.
Mobile Integrated Healthcare Works to Build a Strong Care Network for People Aging-in-Place
Yes, there are many ways mobile integrated healthcare can benefit patients. With that said, MIH cannot be everywhere all at once. When it comes to supporting those aging at home, it takes an entire team of trained and dedicated professionals.
If MIH can work any miracle, it is this: the miracle of connectedness. By this, we mean MIH can be the vehicle that brings together the different branches of healthcare as a cohesive force. This means that the cardiologist, the physical therapist, and the primary care physician are all communicating with each other, sharing patient information, and reducing redundant services.
There can be a lot of legal and corporate tape that keeps people apart – MIH tries to cut through that tape to bring people together. One way they do this is by adopting unifying tools that enable seamless data collection and the safe sharing of information.
Final Take: How MIH-CP Can Help People Aging in Their Homes
Aging in place can have benefits for older adults entering their golden years. Community paramedics working as members of a mobile integrated healthcare team can make a big difference in the lives of those older adults who choose to live at home.
MIH teams can help tailor the patient’s environment to make it safe and conducive to healthy living. The teams can also manage health plans, coordinate with physicians, and rally the professional community to work together to serve their patients.
Contact Julota now to learn how their innovative data-collection tools can help your MIH team deliver quality care to people aging in place.
