The Care Of The Elderly

Essay

Special care and attention are essential for old people for providing them with a good and healthy lifestyle. During this phase, people became less active in any kind of economic, political and social affairs. So, the elderly person needs proper care from other active members of the family. This care is essential to properly maintain the mental and physical functions of the body. As these people are not capable of getting along by their choice, therefore they require proper care and attention from their family members and friends. In addition to this, psychologists basically use this term to refer to that person who needs medical attention from others. So, the main aim of this study is to elaborate on every aspect of elderly care and its importance. The reason for this special care will be discussed in the following section of this study. This assignment will be done by following Asian and American culture with respect to the caring mentality for old persons. Some theories will be used here for supporting the argument. There are two theories named Marxism and Functionalism, which helps to support the argument of elderly care. Moreover, in this study, Functionalism theory will be used for elaborating the concerned topic in the following section of this essay.

Elderly people go through from a sensitive phase, and during that time, they need proper care and comfort from their family members. As these people have no work, they became stressed and tensed sometimes (Flaatten et al. 2017). Along with this, these people sometimes suffer from anxiety and worries. There is insufficient awareness linked to this topic. Moreover, the behavioural pattern towards them needs to be changed, and proper support needs to be given to them. In addition to this, these people sometimes suffer from abusive behaviour from others which hurts their emotions. Apart from this, an elderly person suffers from different kinds of health-related issues like arthritis, blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure and so on. These are critical health issues, and it needs to be treated by applying proper medications (Zallman et al. 2019). As this person does not know more about these health-related issues, therefore, proper awareness is essential for them. Effective communication is essential to understand their state of mind. Nurses and other healthcare employees need to understand the emotions of these elderly people and should provide proper care to them. According to the "Disengagement theory" it can be stated that normal people follow the trend of disengage elderly people from society (Barnay and Juin, 2016). These people interact less with others, and this creates different kinds of mental issues such as stress, anxiety, and others. Functionalists think that older people withdraw from any kind of society. They strongly believe that people should understand their emotions and try to live together. Society thinks that when people became old, then society prepares a place for the new lives to enter in this world. It acts as a cycle in a continuous flow. Moreover, a functional thinks that society must live with them happily and accept them as a part of society (Pinto et al. 2017). According to the “Activity theory” people lives an active lifestyle during their young age. So, while getting old people should understand their situation and take proper care of them.

According to the American culture, a community strongly believes that elderly care is essential, and this should be provided to each old person. In America, young people do take part in elderly care programs as a type of compensation to nurture them (Schwiter et al. 2020). There are many nursing homes which provide proper help to the elderly person. As these people suffer from different kinds of health-related issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases; therefore, proper health-related regulations needs to be maintained by them. Any kind of negative perceptions can affect their emotions (Washington et al. 2017). As these people do not indulge in any kind of work, therefore they have no one to talk and share their feelings. So, it is essential to understand their emotions and try to support them while they need it. However, medical issues can be solved by giving special care to them. There are many healthcare organisations situated in the UK which provides proper care and support to them in a low cost (Greve, 2016). All healthcare employees get the proper training to deal with these people. In addition to this, some privatised services are also available, but these are most costly to them. Most of the middle-class family failed to afford these services. On the other hand, a group of people built a community which actually helps these families by providing them with proper support and care.

There are some caregiver skills which need to be present within any healthcare professionals for treating older people. Empathy, positivity and patience are some essential skills which are essential for this caring of these people. Proper body language should be maintained by the healthcare employees for supporting these older people. Nurses and other healthcare employees should effectively communicate with these people for understanding their health-related issues. The mental state of older people needs to be analysed by health care employees for solving these issues. Optimistic thinking is necessary to deal with these critical mental issues. In addition to this, a healthcare employee needs to observe the symptoms in case of any health-related issue appears. This observation is essential for providing proper medication to them whenever needed. This observation skill is the most important element which embraces the duties of any healthcare employees. There are many care homes present in different regions of Asia and the UK which takes proper responsibility of old people. These care homes include specialised services for these aged people. Moreover, based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that empathetic and respectful behaviour is essential to deal with these issues. Proper love and support are necessary to enhance health-related services. The family should visit these elderly people in care units for making them happy.

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Reference List

• Greve, B. ed., 2016. Long-term care for the elderly in Europe: Development and prospects. Taylor & Francis.
• Flaatten, H., De Lange, D.W., Morandi, A., Andersen, F.H., Artigas, A., Bertolini, G., Boumendil, A., Cecconi, M., Christensen, S., Faraldi, L. and Fjølner, J., 2017. The impact of frailty on ICU and 30-day mortality and the level of care in very elderly patients (≥ 80 years). Intensive care medicine, 43(12), pp.1820-1828.
• Schwiter, K., Brütsch, J. and Pratt, G., 2020. Sending Granny to Chiang Mai: debating global outsourcing of care for the elderly. Global Networks, 20(1), pp.106-125.
• Barnay, T. and Juin, S., 2016. Does home care for dependent elderly people improve their mental health?. Journal of Health Economics, 45, pp.149-160.
• Washington, J., Al-Kindi, S.G., Oliveira, G.H. and Robinson, M.R., 2017. Inpatient palliative care utilisation in elderly patients admitted with heart failure in the United States. Journal of Cardiac Failure, 23(8), p.S118.
• Zallman, L., Finnegan, K.E., Himmelstein, D.U., Touw, S. and Woolhandler, S., 2019. Care for America’s elderly and disabled people relies on immigrant labor. Health Affairs, 38(6), pp.919-926.
• Pinto, S., Cabral, J. and Gomes, T., 2017, March. We-care: An IoT-based health care system for elderly people. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT) (pp. 1378-1383). IEEE.