Abstract
An argument is made that multi-morbidity can be distinguished between three categories: male, female, and elderly. Another identifier linked to multi-morbidity is military service and veterans. Managed care and care planning are offered as common solutions when managing elder care. The topics of hypoxia, palliative care, abdominal distention, and pharmacology are examined to show their effects on elder care and multi-morbidity. For multi-morbidity, the role of chronic illnesses as a public health stressor must also be examined. Cases, solutions, and other outcomes in this chapter will discuss the overall diagnosis in some patients. Financial management in healthcare gains nominal attention because of its importance in our society, culture, and human behaviors.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Mentally Ill: Mental illness is described at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, as a disorder that can cause varying amounts of psychological and behavioral impairment in individuals. NAMI also offers several types of mental illness, 1) anxiety, 2) psychosis, 3) schizophrenia, 4) bipolar disorder, 5) major depression disorder, 6) panic attack, 7) adjustment disorder, 8) post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, 9) borderline personality disorder, and 10) intellectual disability.
Pharmacology: The study of medicines and how they work interacting with the human body, is the definition offered by the British Pharmacological Society. Pharmacology comes from the Latin word “pharmakon” meaning drug, and “logia” meaning knowledge of.
Palliative Care: Evidenced-based quality care for families and practitioners about palliative care and serious illnesses can be found at the National Institute of Nursing. The National Institute of Nursing define palliative care as treatment received concurrently with the illness but being concerned with pain management. Palliative care help to relieve constipation, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, fatigue, loss of sleep, and medical treatment side effects.
Elderly: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ, define elderly in the United States as people aged sixty-five and older and having one or more chronic illnesses or comorbidities. Often the elderly requires specialized care which is managed by family members. The AHRQ estimates that by 2030 the elderly will comprise 20 percent of the US population.
Multi-Morbidity: Adults over the age of sixty-five, living with both physical and mental ailments are classified by the World Health Organization, WHO, as having multi-morbidities. Since individuals with multi-morbidities are at a higher risk of injuries, such as falls, the WHO has devoted much attention to safer elderly primary care. Multi-morbidity conditions include diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and mental illness.
Chronic Diseases: People with chronic illnesses are prone to other infections and maladies because of underlying and existing disease. For example, diabetes, heart, and kidney diseases, which are concurrent with any emerging illnesses. Most patients began therapy for an illness such as heart disease and continue until clinicians see improvement to release the patient from the diagnosed regime. Since the patient is still being considered under physician care, any other illnesses become multiple conditions in health care and medical statistics. Chronic ill patients sometimes are part of a group of behavioral linked and diagnosed individuals due to symptoms and outcomes. The Center for Disease Control, CDC, define chronic disease as any condition by which an individual is treated for more than 1 year and currently undergoing treatment. The CDC also offers risk factors such as alcohol and tobacco use, nutrition and diet, exercise, and physical activities.
Hypoxia: The Cleveland Clinic describes hypoxia as being delirium based on the lack of oxygen in human body tissues. Symptoms include bluish skin, rapid heartbeat, confusion, and often accompanied by heart and lung disease.
Homeless: The National Institute of Health, NIH, and their National Library of Medicine definition of homeless stems from the Stuart B. McKinney Assistance Act in 1987, which gives several conditions to be considered homeless. First, the individual does not have a stable or fixed address during the nighttime. An individual has a nighttime address which is a shelter, or hotel temporary housing, transit or rotational housing for the mentally ill. Sleeping or being housed in a private or public place not intended for humans and is applicable to individuals and families.