Charles: an Elder Interview About the Aging Process and Health Care

I had the privilege of interviewing a 60 year old gentlemen who I will identify as Mr. E to protect his privacy for this assignment. The goal of my interview was to gain insight on aging from an older adult. I interviewed Mr. E in his home on a weekday evening. He expressed appreciation and was surprised that he was the focus of an interview in which his life story and thoughts would be recorded.

“The national attitude toward old people has made a 180-degree turn” in recent years (p. 86). This is an indicator that society now recognizes their value. Additionally, society now has ample data to support that with improved technology and pharmaceuticals

Part D decreases their out of pocket expenses for prescription drugs for a lot of people. Therefore, a great decrease is recognized by patients with extremely high annual expenses for prescription medication. Though, Part D cost patients with low income more then what they previously paid to its adoption when state Medicaid programs covered them. The legislation that established Part D forbids Medicare from negotiating lower prices with drug manufacturers. As a result of an increase in costs of prescription medications frequently passed to the benefit recipients (Mathews, 2006). The legislation are groups that influenced the final outcome of Medicare Part D.

In an order to gain a better understanding how the process of aging affects older adults, I interviewed my neighbor, a sixty-seven year old man. For the purposes of this paper, I will refer to him as Pat. Pat lives with his wife of forty-three years. They currently live in a home in Mounds View, which they have owned for twenty-four years. They receive no home services. He views aging as inevitable. He added that, although there are plenty of negative things that are associated with aging, there are definitely perks that come along with it. He believes that maintaining a healthy lifestyle, carrying a positive attitude, and accepting changes as they come, has helped him adjust to growing old. Pat has been retired for nearly three years. Pat appreciates retirement because he gets to watch his two year old grandson during the week. On the weekends, he gets together with family and friends. He enjoys fishing, hunting, reading, and cheering on his favorite sports teams. Pat has a primary doctor that he has seen for several years. He had a myocardial infarction in 2001, and has since been on two prescribed medications for his heart. In addition, he has arthritis, and has been living with chronic pain for nearly a year. The majority of the pain is in his lower back. He stated that the pain will come and go, but it hurts the most in the morning when he gets out of bed, and when he stands or sits for long periods of time. At the time of the interview, I asked on a scale of 0 through

The Living Old program is about the United States of America population of people who are over 85 years old. This video was broken down into a six chapters. The first chapter was called, “Our Aging Society.” This chapter was about how the geriatric population is growing and changing our current society. In addition to the present changes, Doctor Audrey Chun commented on how people in the past died from pneumonia, flus, and other things such as infectious diseases. Whereas, in present time people are dying from chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, strokes, diabetes and other things that require management over the years. This chapter also touched on how the current health care system is not set up to treat chronic diseases.

In 2003, Congress approved what is known as Medicare part D which allowed for Medicare participants a prescription drug benefit. Up until this point one-quarter of beneficiaries had no coverage for their medications. Which is a crucial part of their healthcare. There are two plans under Part D, Prescription Drug Plan, for drug coverage only, and Medicare Advantage plan, which covers both medical services and prescription drugs (Poisal J., 2000).

In a health care system beset by inequality, excessive spending, and average outcomes, one segment of the population in particular presents a variety of problems and opportunities that need to be addressed: the elderly. Individuals over the age of sixty-five in the United States utilize a disproportionate share of medical services compared to the rest of the population, and the growth of this demographic means that any concerns associated with it will only continue to intensify. By studying the health care that is provided to the elderly, one not only gains insight into how this population segment could be better served, but also into how the delivery of health care for the entire population could be improved to ameliorate the problems associated with access, cost, and quality.

Experiences with older Adults In this paper I will be talking about my experience with the older generation. I have many personal experiences of my own with the older generation at home and from working at a nursing home. In my paper I will be talking about three main points, my experience with older people at home, older people at work and what I know about aging. First, of all I live at home with my grandparents, who are both in their late sixties. While living back at home with my grandparents I’ve noticed many different aging problems with them, such as hearing loss, vision loss, and memory loss.

During my practicum and work experience there has been a population that has stood out to me and has become the area in which I would like to focus my attention on. This is the ever growing population of older adults in our country. First, I will define why I am so interested in this area of practice: the strengths older adults posses as well as some general issues experienced by older adults. After that, I will discuss the strengths perspective and how it relates to in home service provision of older adults. Finally, I will discuss state and national advocacy that is taking place to keep older adults living in the community.

The senior population continues to grow much faster than it has in any generation in the history of the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2008), the anticipated growth of the population 60 and over in the U.S. is expected to grow from just under 55 million in the 2010 census to 72 million in the 2020 census. This represents a 13% increase in the aging population in just a 10-year period. To add to this, we are currently experiencing what the National Institute on Aging (2015) characterizes as a dramatic increase in life expectancy. This means that there are more seniors than ever – and more older seniors than

North America is experiencing a rapid growth in its elderly population. For instance, as of 2001, seniors accounted for 13% of the Canadian population and projections indicate that this number will rise to 25% by 2036 (Chappell, McDonald, &, Stones, 2003). This rapid expansion necessitates a critical understanding of the requirements of the elderly and removing obstacles that hinder people from reaching their full potentials in later years.

To begin with Emma Norfolk’s prezi How the Elderly Were Treated in the 1930s, “Many old people felt useless and many was left starving and pushed to the side due to their lack of ability to help bring in an income for the family.” According to the National Institute on Aging’s Growing Older in America: The Health and Retirement Study claims, “Most people are happy and active in retirement. Some 61 percent of retirees surveyed in 2000 say they found the retirement transition to be very satisfying.” Old people today live betters lives than they did 80 years ago due to their ability to work longer and their transitions into

Firstly, it is important to understand that older adults are not a homogenous group, which has important implications. Older adults do not have the same problems and needs, and therefore cannot be solved with a universal intervention. This is vital because better solutions must be conceptualized that are grounded in data through systematic processes such as need assessments. Secondly, the chronological age of an older adult should not dictate how they should be treated. Older adults should not be patronized and treated like children because of their age, it does not mean that they should lose their independence and autonomy unless their capacity to perform daily activities and health is compromised.

The increased life expectancy has created a larger population of the elderly, which is a significant demographic change that the U.S. has begun to experience. It is projected that the increase in the life expectancy will continue to impact the amplified growth of the elderly population in the future. The increased elderly population, has created a need for the U.S. to implement policies that support and meet the developing number of diverse needs the elderly population will require in order to age well. The life expectancy has increased considerably from 68.2 years in 1950 to 78.7 years in 2011 (Chapin, 2014, p. 481). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, currently there are approximately 43.14 million Americans aged 65 or older in the U.S. (Chapin, 2014, p. 481). In the future, the elderly American population of individuals aged 65 or older is projected to reach 72.1 million by 2030 (Chapin, 2014, p. 481) hence, policies and programs must promote economic security, adequate health care, and social engagement for the increasing population of the elderly in the U.S. to support the elderly in aging well. “If policies permit the hiring of part-time workers, and age discrimination is not allowed, older adults can take part in meaningful, productive activities far into advanced age” (Chapin, 2014, p. 473) allowing the elderly to age well and find personal fulfillment.

Aging has become a worldwide social problem because it could be looked at from both a beneficial and detrimental perspective (Phillipson, 2006). Many people in society tend to focus on the negative aspects of aging, but there are many positive