Essay Example on Ageing Population: Challenges and Consequences for Nations

Introduction

Ageing, in today's population, demonstrates a significant demographic of the change that is taking place in societies. Based on a report released by Brookings, Ageing comes with essential consequences and challenges for the economy of the nation, health, and social institutions for the well-being and health of aged person's and their families at large (Nikolova, 2016). When the medical and living standards are improved in the control and prevention of fatal infectious diseases, it will increase the population meant to be old. The reason behind this move is that most of them are vulnerable to stroke, arthritis, mental disorder, heart disease and other chronic diseases that can either limit or cause total disability.

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The longer people live, the more chronic diseases erupt the middle age and old age. Most cases have also emerged due to the functionality and disability dependency services because of how they affect the nation (Nikolova, 2016). Health, income security, recreation and transportation are some of the challenges faced by this age group. The problem of chronic diseases is that it generates a challenge for the long-term providers, policymakers and care services such as friends and families.

How Eldercare Relates to the Continuity Theory

The continuity theory replaces the merits of disengagement and activity theories because of the external and internal factors. For instance, internal continuity is derived from a person's personality and aspects such as emotions, unique experience, and temperament of the person. Internal continuity also connects the individual to their past (Diggs, 2015). External continuity, on the other hand, is derived from the social and physical environment and their roles and jobs they engage in. Phasing out employment and friendships, maintaining their lives when they are old is the challenge.

Based on the continuity theory, people maintain a pattern of behaviour that is consistent as they grow old by substituting the same roles to adapt to the environment. In short, when someone gets old, they do not change dramatically but maintain the same personality unless affected by significant events or illness (Diggs, 2015). In life, the satisfaction of people is determined by current activities or lifestyle consistency with their life experiences.

The central characteristics of the old then become more pronounced, and their value becomes salient as they grow old. For instance, people that involved themselves in the past in organizations, religious groups and many organizations continues with the same characters or come up with new especially when they relocate or retire (Diggs, 2015). A person, in this case, ages frequently or successfully if he or she maintains an integrated, mature personality while ageing.

The Significance of Elderly Care

Eldercare is the way of fulfilling the requirement and needs of senior citizens (Escuder-Mollon & Lipphardt, 2017). The term encompasses services like adult daycare, assisted living, nursing homes, home care and residential care. Due to the wide variety of elderly care, no practice is limited. For instance, countries in Asia are provided with eldercare for the government but with limitations. This is the reason why most of them prefer using the traditional procedures of appointing the young generations of the family members to take care of the old.

Taking care of elders emphasizes the personal and social requirements of the older generation because they need to be assisted with their health care and daily activities. Elderly care is an essential distinction in that the services, employee training, exercises and design of house must be customer-centred (Escuder-Mollon & Lipphardt, 2017). However, it is noteworthy that global elderly care is under the unpaid market sector, and this ends up showing the merits and limitations of the services offered.

The advantages of elder care are the solace of home. An injured, sick or older person has a lot of things to stress about. Therefore, when they are allowed to remain in the same house, it gives them a feeling of commonality and solace. Such places also will enable them to be close to their pets, families and things that are of value to them. The limitations are that there is the insufficiency of caregivers. If the individual only gets one caregiver to do all the duties, then either the patient will be mishandled, or he or she will do a shoddy work (Escuder-Mollon & Lipphardt, 2017). Therefore the individual not only does he need someone to take care of them but also someone that can communicate with them.

One Issue not Addressed by the Media

Even though the involvement of older people is feasible and well researched, the challenges related to such groups should also be considered. Several strategies embraced to enhance their participation is directed in the use of accessible and visualized communication, choice of location, flexible approaches, and creating good relationships. However, further research must be done on how the old will be involved in care homes under their vision or mobility limitations. The reason behind this claim is that as much as information released show that the aged are being taken care off, no one has heard from them to tell their challenges. It is therefore vital to get such information to make sure that the old is being taken care of in the right manner.

References

Diggs, J. (2015). The Continuity Theory of Aging. Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health, 233-235. DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_103

Escuder-Mollon, P., & Lipphardt, A.-M. (2017). Senior Citizens Learning On-Line; Needs And Expectations. INTED2017 Proceedings, 1(2), 98-114. DOI: 10.21125/inted.2017.2254

Nikolova, M. (2016, July 29). Two solutions to the challenges of population ageing. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2016/05/02/two-solutions-to-the-challenges-of-population-aging/