The Social services in St. Louis

The social care and support for the elderly and disabled has been selected as the social service area to be studied in this essay. The majority of the time, when people consider social care services, they typically picture residential care facilities. However, depending on their needs, the nature of their condition, or the seriousness of the issue, this particular social service examines the deeper problems of the elderly and the disabled. Owing to the dramatic increase in the life expectancy due to the improved medical, social and environmental standards, there has been a need to provide social care to the elderly and the disabled. In most cases, when people think about social care services, they majorly tend to think of it in terms of a residential care home. However, this particular social service takes a look at the deeper concerns of the elderly and the disabled people depending on their needs, type of condition or the severity of the matter. Owing to the dramatic increase in the life expectancy due to the improved medical, social and environmental standards, there has been a need to provide social care to the elderly and the disabled. Most people at the age of 75 develop dependency associated problem due to their aging conditions.
At 75, most show a decline in their mobility, health and the ability to perform their domestic tasks. Around 50 percent of the elderly after 65 years are found to be disabled and unfortunately, they live alone. Owing to these conditions and the needs of the society, this social care tends to cater for the societal needs such as those mentioned above, the social service was initiated to solve some of the related problems. The target audience in this case is the seniors. This project is meant to be funded primarily on charity basis. The capacity and the number of elderly people will determine the number of employees needed. The ratio of employees to the seniors is approximated to be 1:10. In the beginning, the number of seniors was less and the funding was unstable therefore the ratio of the employees to the seniors was 1:7. At the moment, funding is stable, however, it is not sufficient enough while the number of seniors has increased which has caused the ratio to go to 1:10.


2.1 Determination of the need
This is a stand-alone program that works in an almost similar manner to the other social organizations that give care to the elderly, however, it is created in such a manner that it cultivates partnership with people who have expertise in senior related activities and are committed to ensure the success of the project with regard to the growth and expenditure. It also majorly focuses on the use of social media as an administration tool (Schadé & Primary Health Care Scenario Committee, 1993). Social media has power, and the capability to reach most people i.e. in terms of the seniors who need help and in contributing to generation of revenue for the program. Social media can be used extensively to cultivate partnerships outside one's expertise since people can opt to share their knowledge of handling elders in particular manners. This tool can be used to admitting new, brilliant personnel thereby bringing new capabilities into the agency. It fosters on giving all the possible available advantage to the seniors. The commitment of this agency to expand the social media such that it becomes fully integrated into the agency's mobility plans. Technological concerns have contributed greatly to industrialization and there in every institution, there is need to use the technological advancement to foster growth and development within the institution (United States, 1984). Our goal was to use social media as a marketing tool and shift the priorities of content sharing and outreach gives the core definition of the program.
The expenditure on the social media is however to be minimized at all costs and have a major goal of development of this program. From social advertisements and outreach program, we can attract mostly college students who are on social media to come and volunteer in the agency therefore cutting the employee costs. Apart from the external use of social media in the home, it can also be used internally by the seniors themselves. The social media can be used by the elderly to generate sufficient knowledge that can be used to help them (International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics, 2015). Each participant during their leisure time can be introduced to computers and given lessons that can be used to develop their computer literacy which can then be used to build their social media skills and capabilities depending on the individual needs of the seniors. The use of the social media can then be used to handle some of the social challenges encountered in the elderly homes with regard to communication; some elders may not want to participate in group meetings however needed, they may on the other hand choose to share their views on social media. They are able to share their needs, wants and attitudes that are hard to express in person in the social media. An encounter with some of the elderly who had the social media platform introduced in their set up showed that they really had a great time with the new experience and according to them, it was useful and interesting and some say that they would definitely participate in similar activities again, however, their concern was that some still needed a tutor for more practice. The change to use social media as a management support tool has enabled to solve many issues that have remained unsolved over years.
2.2 Target audience, possible funding streams, cost to client and employee needs
This platform targets all audience although the major area of concern is the elderly. The center audience is the seniors since this is a social care program for the seniors and the disabled people. They link people such as their family members and all the possible lose relatives of the seniors who can be of help to the program. Another audience related to the program are the donors and the fund contributors who can use this plat form to give their views the finances and the management strategies. The possible volunteers from colleges and universities could be the other target group since most of them can be found on social media mostly. Funding of this project is based on donor contribution. Revenues to run the project will entirely be based from contributions of donors such as the governmental and the non-governmental institution contributions, contributions from the family and the relatives of the seniors and other personal contributions. It was however to ensure a good personal profile of the company is kept to ensure the attraction of donors (Berg, Netherlands, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiëne & Netherlands, 1994). From the funds generated, a good disbursement can be done such that it is able to cater from the expenses of the seniors' upkeep and it is the same amount that can also be used to cater for the employee financial needs i.e. their pay and attached allowances. The employees are staffed in such a way that some cater for the physical and personal needs of the seniors while others cater for the social needs of both the seniors and the management.
2.3 Research back up of the program
According to Bajwa, "more research is needed to understand the benefits and the social implications of how the elderly use the social media. This preliminary research illustrates the possibilities of Facebook enabling communication given the importance of retaining remaining social ties and the growing issue of social isolation in the elderly and in the aged care facility. Whilst this study is a pilot study for the future research, it is aimed to discern whether a project of this kind is feasible. Our social welfare partners claim that the most isolated elderly are those living as individuals at home." (Bajwa, Koeszegi & Vetschera, 2017). From Bajwa's point of view, initiation of such a program extends further even to the elders who are living in their homes such that they can be able to have a social connection with other elders through the social media platform and avoid the social isolation encounters that they may be having. A research carried out on the seniors living in St. Louis also showed the need to develop the social network platform since some of them preferred communication their issues through third parties and not directly and initiation of such a program would greatly help resolve some of the delicate issues they had.
3.1 Future implications of the program
The future of implications that can be attributed to this program include speed, intuitiveness, choices and guidance (Masters,2014). Speed attributed to this program is in terms of disaster preparation, prevention and responses. By using this programs, it will be easier to communicate problems that one is facing at a faster mode compared to the mode that involves reporting such cases in person (Nelson, Joos & Wolf, 2013). Future advancements of the program will cater for even faster responses to such programs by building quick response systems that operate in a matter of seconds. The trend based estimates from the research show that socio- demographic characteristics that affect care consumption can be used to determine future care use. When statistically analyzed, patterns of availability in terms of employees may also change and therefore, this type of exercise can be used to give guidance and instructions to seniors who are far from reach at the moment for the home help services. In terms of choices, this program will be able to give the seniors the choice to communicate freely and have a limited number of choices in the number of services that they can access. It will also foster intuition such that the user does not have to rally think of what to do since they are easily taken care of.
Conclusion
From the discussion above, social care for the elderly and the disabled is very important, however, it is also important to cater for the additional programs that would ensure maximum output in the project. In this particular program use of social media is what the key factor was and it offers vital benefits to the program with great future implications.


References
Bajwa, D., Koeszegi, S. T., & Vetschera, R. (2017). Group Decision and Negotiation. Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Application: 16th International Conference, GDN 2016, Bellingham, WA, USA, June 20-24, 2016, Revised Selected Papers.
Berg, J. A., Netherlands., Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiëne (Netherlands), & Netherlands. (1994). The Elderly in 2005: Health and care : updated scenarios on health and aging, 1990-2005. Norwell, Mass: Kluwer Academic.
International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics, In Bodine, C., In Helal, A. A., In Gu, T., & In Mokhtari, M. (2015). Smart homes and health telematics. 12th International Conference, ICOST 2014, Denver, CO, USA, June 25-27, 2014, Revised papers.
Masters, K. (2014). Role development in professional nursing practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Nelson, R., Joos, I. M., & Wolf, D. M. (2013). Social media for nurses: Educating practitioners and patients in a networked world. New York, NY: Springer Pub. Co.
Schadé, E., & Primary Health Care Scenario Committee. (1993). Primary care and home care scenarios, 1990-2005: Scenario report commissioned by the Steering Committee on Future Health Scenarios. Dordrecht: Springer-Science+Business Media.
United States. (1984). Elderly housing: Innovative alternatives : hearing before the
Subcommittee on Housing and Consumer Interests of the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives. Ninety-eighth Congress, first session, August 12, 1983, Portland, Oreg. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.