Institutionalized care

| The institutionalization of an elderly person is considered as the change of residence outside their home.

Social and health care for the elderly goes beyond the strictly sanitary, but in practice it is difficult to differentiate them. In the case of institutionalized care, that is, care given to the elderly outside their community, this becomes very evident.

When it becomes clear that it is impossible to keep an elderly person in their habitual residence, not even with external supports from their relatives and close friends (informal ones) or with those provided by public or private institutions (formal care), the decision is reached to intern the old man.

Types of centers

There are several types of centers that are suitable for different types of situation:

• Sheltered flats, both shared and individual; isolated or in communities with centralized services that adapt to the changing needs of neighbors.
• Family welcome, which is the situation in which an elderly person who needs permanent or continuous help for their daily life is protected by a family or another lesser and more independent person who, by contract, undertakes to care for them in exchange for compensation, which usually be economic (or real estate) upon termination of the contract or upon the death of the host. In most cases, it is the elderly who moves, but increasingly it is the welcoming who moves, keeping the dependent in their usual environment.
• Non-assisted residential centers, in which elderly people who cannot live alone but who do not have significant health needs are welcomed. They are usually aimed at people who have serious difficulties for instrumental activities and not so many in basic activities and who do not have external help to carry out these activities (cooking, buying food, maintaining household hygiene) at home. They also support the basic activities of daily life (personal hygiene, food intake, etc.). A main and basic activity of these centers is the promotion and maintenance of social activities, both among the residents themselves, with the development of recreational, recreational and cultural activities, as well as in supporting the external social network of the elderly. Regarding health support, it is mainly preventive and control of diseases that require simple care.
• Assisted residences or long-stay centers, designed for the elderly who have major health problems, with special and / or ongoing healthcare needs. They are usually integrated into the health network. These centers offer rehabilitation care, mobilization care for highly dependent patients, cures for pressure ulcers, administration of complex treatments such as nebulisations, administration of parenteral nutrition, etc.

These different types of care can be given well in the long runEither in short periods such as family rest periods or as convalescence after an episode that alters the autonomy of the elderly person.

Which center to choose

In most cases, access to each of these types of center, if it is done from the public administration, to undergo an assessment carried out by the assessment units, which are usually the autonomous administrations of each territory, to determine the competent authority.

From this evaluation it is decided what is the center and the type of care more suitable for each case and at all times. In the case that a totally private care is decided, even if the public evaluation process does not have to be passed, the support and advice of interdisciplinary geriatric assessment groups are convenient, as well as the opinion of the elderly person's usual doctor.

In the cases in which the elderly person correctly maintains his / her, with the capacity for reasoning and understanding intact, it is evident and basic that the situation of need for help should be explained, clearly and understandably, if possible with alternatives. reasonable to confinement and respecting their final decision.