HP 626 week 7 discussion cost of chronic illness and dementia discussion questions

Paper Instructions

Initial Post

If your first name begins with the letters A–M Topic 1 – Cost of Chronic Illness
Using the learning materials to support your claims, respond to the following prompts in your initial post

Managing chronic illness is a major challenge for the U.S. healthcare system. This challenge is often related to an inability to control the choices people make (for example, diabetics who choose a poor diet that later exacerbates their health complications).

  • From the readings, identify two factors associated with healthcare spending that must be addressed. Why did you choose those two factors?
  • What is a possible solution to efficiently and effectively manage the care of the chronically ill? Use the readings and/or video to support your answer.
  • Describe the current burden of chronic mental illness on our healthcare system.
  • What factors related to mental health disparities and cost did you find surprising?
  • Discuss how these challenges would impact you as an aging service

provider and leader in a long-term care organization.

  • Your initial post should be 500 to 700 words, with one to two supporting references included.
  • If your first name begins with the letters N–Z Topic 2 – Economic and Social Cost of Dementia
  • Using the learning materials to support your claims, respond to the following prompts in your original post

Consider the multiple costs of dementia. The impact of dementia on individuals, as well as on their families, is significant; but what about the costs that ripple through the healthcare system, as well as through society?

Describe the economic and emotional costs dementia has on multiple levels.
As a service provider for aging adults, how do these costs impact your ability to care for aging adults?

Discuss the financial burden of dementia and the cost in a residential setting. Your initial post should be 500 to 700 words, with one to two supporting references included.

We Work Hard So That You Don’t

We’ll write a 100% plagiarism-free paper in under 1 hour.

Dementia in Aging Adults

Dementia or any other chronic illness is challenge of life that is very difficult to endure not only by the individual themselves but also those around them especially their family members. More than 5 million Americans live with dementia and as the population increases, this number is likely to increase placing an even greater burden on families, the long-term care system, and the economy (Jutkowitz et al., 2017).

Dementia patients pay multiple costs of dementia. They not only have to pay for this emotionally but the financial impact the disease brings with itself has a vast impact on the financial stability of patients and their families. Although caring for dementia patients have positive impacts, it significantly has negative impacts as well.

Caregivers report higher amounts of strain, mental and physical problems and caregiver burnout. They have also reported social isolation and financial hardships as a result of caring for a loved one with dementia (Samuels, 2023).

Although the cost of dementia is high, when we think about families who have to take time out from their daily lives to care for the patients, they are not only missing out on the positive pleasures of their lives, but they are also unable to use that time to work or earn income.

Along with that caregivers can also get affected by the psychological well-being of dementia patients and in the long rum be victims of anxiety and depression. When it comes to the economic cost of dementia, it does not get any better.

Caregivers of patients with dementia get worn out easily or they are unable to care for these patients due to their work so many patients end up going into long-term care. In a study when dementia cost is discussed, researchers found that a person with dementia receives greater than $250,000 worth of care.

Another study found that those with dementia receive greater than $56,000 in additional care in any given year compared to those without dementia. In the same study, they analyzed the informal caregiving rate, which was about $19.71, and the value of formal caregiving was $23/hour. They found that total and net cost of dementia over a lifetime of dementia was $321,780 and $184,500, respectively (Jutkowitz et al., 2017).

As a service provider for aging adults, the financial impact of my ability to care for and run my department is vast because these are payments not always covered by health insurance. Due to the payments not being made by patients on time, it is difficult to provide service without the financial burden of running a business smoothly.

If the patient is covered through insurance or they have means of fulfilling their financial obligations, no such burden should impact one from giving proper care to their patients and residents.

Jutkowitz, E., Kane, R. L., Gaugler, J. E., MacLehose, R. F., Dowd, B., & Kuntz, K. M. (2017, October). Societal and family lifetime cost of dementia Implications for policy. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

References

  • https //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5657516/# ~ text=Costs%20for%20a%20person%20with,net%20cost%20peaked%20at%20%2472%2C400. Samuels, C. (2023, December 11). Major Health Risks for dementia caregivers. Health Risks for Dementia Caregivers | A Place for Mom.

We Work Hard So That You Don’t

We’ll write a 100% plagiarism-free paper in under 1 hour