How Aging, Ethnicity, Life Situations, and Disease Affect Person and Health as an Aging Adult

Introduction

The populations across the globe are fast aging. As such, there is an urgent need to focus on coherent public health approaches which seek to cover a wide range of stakeholders. A longer life presents opportunities as well as challenges for families and individuals ("Ageing", n.d.). For instance, a longer life offers one a chance to pursue careers, fulfill an individual's passion and many others. On the other hand, long life leads to cellular damage and progressive deterioration of body health which causes a gradual decrease in mental and physical capacity. Older people are susceptible to multiple diseases and some other complex health conditions which are not necessarily categorized into discrete diseases. Besides biological changes, aging is also accompanied by other lifestyle transitions such as relocations to a conducive environment, social, behavioral changes, retirement, death of loved ones.

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This paper highlights how aging, ethnicity, life circumstances and disease have affected an aging adult. It takes into account the individual's background, interactions, perception towards treatment, and overall experience. The aim was to gain in-depth insight on experiences of aging from an aging adult who is identified as Mrs. X in this assignment. Health events occur quite often among the aging as compared to other age groups (Zubair & Norris, 2015). As such, there is a need for in-depth studies on how ethnicity, life situations, and diseases affect the elderly's health. The older adults have many symptoms, clinical signs as well as functional impairments which require extensive focus because most of them are not factored in the traditional administrative detail framework which highlights morbidity (Zubair & Norris, 2015).

Individual's Background

Mrs. X is a 65-year-old Latino woman who was born in Texas. She went to school to senior level and dropped out because her parents were struggling to offset medical bills for her ailing father among other bills. She was the elder sibling of seven. According to Larson, Mathews, Torres, and Lea (2017), the Latino population in the US has increased over the past years and is consistently expected to rise in regards to diversity and number. It is projected that the number of Latinos of age sixty-five will increase from 8% of the US population to around 20% by the year 2050. Mrs. X moved to the rural Southeastern region, North Carolina in the year 2000 to live with her young son. The Latinos and Hispanic accounted for 25% of North Carolina's population increase (Larson et al., 2017). She had lost her job as she was considered quite old for it. She has been working in agricultural farms to fend for her needs after her husband passed on. As such she has been in economic crisis for quite a long time in her life something she says does not bother her so long as she lives a happy life within the small means.

Important Accomplishments

Research indicates that the Latino women age slower compared to other racial groups and they are also the most socioeconomically challenged group of America's elderly population (Jacques, 2016). Despite being socioeconomically disadvantaged, Mrs. X spent the better part of her life doing all sorts of tasks to save some funds for her old age. She managed to use the money her son gave her which added up to pay for a house mortgage. However, she probably cannot afford to pay for the upkeep of an assistant as she ages, so her son helps her with running errands.

Implications of Coming from Ethnic Minority and How It Affected Her Life Course

Studies which pursue to examine the various experiences of aging among the ethnic minority older individuals and focus on other matters concerning ethnicity in the elderly population remain limited (Zubair & Norris, 2015). As such, this lack of concern about older ethnic minority groups has had negative implications in how they live. Mrs. X's parents faced various challenges in accessing medical insurance and health services in her childhood because they were undocumented citizens. Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in their family was a significant concern, and their low level of income and education accounted for higher risk of diseases. Genetics contribute a great deal to some of the illnesses she has had while growing up.

Description of the Type of Contact She Has with Young People, Organizations and Social Services

She has a close connection with her younger son who does a lot of activities for her around the house. For the Latinos, they maintain great loyalty to their families and sometimes the extended part of the family as it is a vital way to find help and seek advice. In old age, they utilize these connections to seek for encouragement in their ailing periods, and they get motivated in their course of disease and self-management. She also has consistent contact with Latino Health Access, an organization which is involved in health promotion and disease prevention for both Latino women and children. She also has a connection with two social services which assist her in the management of her manage her lifestyle.

How Mrs. X Uses the Contacts to Meet Her Needs

It is quite challenging for older patients to make their independent personal decisions. Therefore, these contacts help her to meet her social needs as well as the healthcare needs. Mrs. X sometimes feels she has to discuss essential treatment options such as using some medications and modifying lifestyle activities. For this, she asks her son about lifestyle adjustments and matters on treatment description. In the Latino Health Access initiative, she benefits from the 12-session program for older adults with type 2 diabetes. She is also a beneficiary of older adults' program which seeks to ultimately offer the elderly with health care protections, social service care which is required for their remaining years to live with independence and dignity. It is conducted on a door to door outreaches which entails home assessments and comprehensive education to facilitate a safe lifestyle for the elderly.

Perception of How Mrs. X Is Treated

Mrs. X is a very open-minded woman who likes to engage in discussions about her health. She has had several diagnoses on health, and apart from diabetes which she manages quite well, she sometimes gets depressed due to cancer which luckily was diagnosed in her 30s because early detection of cancer leads to comprehensive management. She likes the way the health facilities treat her she accesses and the community-based organizations that present her with adequate support. She particularly loves when health promoters conduct educational sessions regularly on how disease self-management is implemented and the wide range of discourses on preventions which is inclusive of mental health, proper nutrition, and most importantly falls prevention. She says ethnicity does not play a big role when it comes to accessing some of the social services but it is vital to engage in discussions with other elderly from the same ethnical background to share experiences.

What Living with Chronic Diseases Means and How They View Utilization of Healthcare Resources

Living with a chronic disease is quite stressful, and without proper management, an individual can fall into depression state (Caballero, 2011). Chronic diseases are quite expensive to manage as significant funds are channeled towards the purchase of drugs and lifestyle adjustments. Mrs. X admits that older people are always vulnerable especially in decision-making in a dynamic environment since they have inadequate physical mobility and acquiring information may be curtailed. Due to declining memory capacity, information processing is challenging when being provided with details on lifestyle changes to manage her chronic diseases (Caballero, 2011). Mrs. X lacks proper cognitive flexibility which sometimes makes her susceptible to making poor decisions and poor problem-solving. However, she has an excellent record of utilizing health resources. To her, the body is a healing machine, and she has never thought of signing anything to authorize euthanasia in case she gets the hopeless-looking condition. She believes in life and natural death because she already managed to live a long time with cancer. Her life became better when she was put on therapeutic management and treatment plan.

This course readings provides valuable information on how an individual can cope with a chronic condition. One is urged to make healthy investment in themselves which comprises of lifestyle changes. For example, one should consume healthier foods, avoid drugs and other substances ("10 steps for coping with a chronic condition", 2017). A patient would feel better and live longer when they resort healthier eating habits and effective exercises.

Conclusion and Summary of Personal Experiences (Career Goals)

I find pleasure in interviewing older adults, and it fulfills my spirits to learn how most of them take aging quite positively. I have always loved working with such individuals since many people ignore them, yet they grapple with quite a lot of socioeconomic and health problems. For my long-term career goals, I would like to become a nurse who provides quality health care to the elderly as well as educational approaches to help them cope with personal challenges and lifestyle adjustments. Besides, I would like to contribute great insight in developing research materials, particularly in the area of aging, ethnicity and acculturation, a field of study which has not been researched extensively and coupled with limited literature.

Summarily, aging comes with multiple challenges which span from social matters to health conditions. The majority of the individuals from ethnical minority groups who are over 60 years sometimes may face depression and stressful situations due to chronic diseases. However, with love and care, the elderly can learn to self-manage their conditions and live positive lives just like Mrs. X. Through access to social services, healthcare facilities and effective contacts Mrs. X has proven to accept her chronic conditions and age thus living a more frugal life for her fulfillment and sustainability.

References

10 steps for coping with a chronic condition - Harvard Health. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/10-steps-for-coping-with-a-chronic-condition.

Ageing. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/ageing/.

Caballero, A. (2011). Understanding the Hispanic/Latino patient. The American Journal of Medicine, 124(10), S10-S15. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2011.07.018.

Jacques, R. (2016). Study shows that Latina women may age slower than other ethnicities. Retrieved from https://www.allure.com/story/latina-women-may-age-more-slowly-study.

Larson, K., Mathews, H., Torres, E., & Lea, C. (2017). Responding to health and social needs of aging Latinos in new-growth communities: A qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1). doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2551-2.

Zubair, M., & Norris, M. (2015). Perspectives on ageing, later life and ethnicity: Ageing research in ethnic minority contexts. Ageing and Society, 35(05), 897-916. doi:10.1017/s0144686x14001536.