In its broadest sense, the idea of asylum refers to the protection, safeguard or help that is provided to someone. From this meaning other meanings of the term emerge.
For example: “When my mother kicked me out of the home, my grandfather gave me asylum”, “Javier offered me asylum, but I think I will stay in Esteban’s house”, “Hundreds of Syrian citizens have requested asylum in the country since the upsurge of armed confrontations ”.
According to DigoPaul, asylum is generally spoken of when the government of one country welcomes a person from another nation, from whom he escapes since his life is at risk. By granting him asylum, the receiving State undertakes to ensure his safety and to provide him with assistance.
If the individual flees his land due to religious, racial, cultural or sexual persecution, or if he emigrates due to a natural catastrophe or a situation of violence, there is talk of humanitarian asylum. The country granting asylum should favor the integration of the refugee and assist them so that they can return to their place of origin when the scenario changes or to settle in a third country if they so wish.
On the other hand, when an individual requests protection in a country so that they do not extradite him, since in his land he would be tried for facts related to political activity, he asks for political asylum.
Lastly, the establishment that provides shelter to individuals with some type of dependency (such as the elderly or disabled) is known as an asylum: “Since my grandmother died, my grandfather lives in an asylum. ”
In this context, one of the most common concepts is the nursing home, which welcomes those older people who do not need the constant attention of a doctor, something that they could receive in a hospital, but who can not take care of themselves or who do not have the help of a loved one to lead a normal and healthy life.
Since a great number of very different disorders and conditions can appear with aging, it is difficult to define all the services that a nursing home provides; roughly speaking, we can say that the two main groups of clients are those who need to recover from medical treatment such as surgery, and those who only seek basic day-to-day care.
Delving further into the various patient profiles, we can distinguish the following: convalescent from a disorder or an intervention; in rehabilitation for some accident or pathological process; in a vegetative or terminal state; dependent due to chronic pathology; with cognitive decline; highly dependent on dementia.
All this without mentioning the cases of people whose families intern them against their will for not wanting to take care of them. It may also happen that the elder actively decides to enter a nursing home so as not to disturb her loved ones, or because she does not have someone to help her.
Regarding the organization of a nursing home, there are three basic models:
* similar to a hospital: these are those that offer their patients medical assistance of various kinds, and which have nursing personnel on each floor;
* family: this type of asylum has an operation that could be compared to that of a large family home, in which there is no great rigidity in routines, and staff interacts with residents in a more spontaneous and close way;
* mixed: asylums that combine the benefits of a hospital with the family environment. They typically require larger facilities than either of the two above, and a larger budget to sustain themselves.
