Empathy For The Elderly Research Paper

Starla, I agree with your statement that the older adult is a part of the vulnerable population. I also agree that more resources need to be available to them with education and that this could aid in the reduction of hospital readmissions. One of the articles I summarized, Risk Assessment and Intervention for Older Adults (Culo, 2011), also said the older person may have ‘red flags’ such as repeat emergency room visits or admissions, putting off medical problems, and not taking prescriptions as directed. Frequent assessments for risks and home visits could curb their health care costs. There should also be more involvement from family if available.

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.

It is very important to take good care of the health older patients. The most important aspect will be to prevent diseases and complications. By having an organization or a clinic in which the patient could have good disease

As a person ages, theirs body cannot perform the way it used to. This will cause many elderly people to loose their job or choose to go into retirement. Both of these options cause a loss in health care as well and a reduced or exterminated income. Here alone lies a reason that the elderly population is challenged. The elderly population also has a tendency to develop a chronic illness that can be life threatening if not treated or controlled properly. This means that need for health care treatments also increases. At least 40% of those over age 65 will have nutrition-related health problems requiring treatment or management (Gigante, 2012). It is important to realize that 10% of people over the age of 65 and will develop Alzheimer’s disease and 50% of those over the age of 85 will develop this disease (Gigante, 2012). More elderly African American men and women use government aid than white men and women. Therefore, this population will be vulnerable because of the lack of funding, proper health care and insurance.

Empathy is the ability to understand the situation and share the feelings and also be able to identify a client's experiences. A counsellor must be able to imagine how it feels to be in a client's shoes and manage to understand the situation from their point of view. "Empathy has been described in different ways: walking in another's shoes, entering into another person's frame of reference or having the ability to experience life as the other person does by entering the person's world of thoughts, feelings, emotions and meanings", (Martha,2012) .In the other hand, the good counsellor still have the ability to be understanding even though the they are not agree with the client's perspective in order to solve the client's issues effectively.

The elderly population is growing with 35 million people who are age 65 years or older and half are between the ages of 65 to 74 and the other half are over the age of 75. The population age 85 years or older are the fastest growing population (Dubow, 2017). In 1991 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported that 8 out of 10 people over the age of 60 had one or more chronic diseases or impairments which included arthritis, hypertension, hearing impairment, heart disease, cataracts, deformity or orthopedic impairment, chronic sinusitis,

Most aging adults do not receive the necessary preventive services to help promote health and wellness during this stage of life. These preventive services include vaccinations and screenings. These important services help detect many diseases, delay their onset, or identify them early in their most treatable stages to ensure healthier, longer, and more productive lives for older adults (Prevention, 2011). Better people take care of themselves the longer they will live. People who balance: the right diet, making better choices and not acting sedentary has a better chance in living longer lives.

The elderly population have challenges that other ages do not have to face. Elderly face some number situations. These issues arise once people reach a certain age and follow them till the day that they pass on. For example, there are certain health issues that come the age. The African American elderly deals with a lot of issues; ranging from health to financial. But the African American elderly have a big influence on their community. But also, it is very important for the health of the elderly. The relationship can keep the elders’ health and mental health in good standing. The elderly can face many issues as their lives and body grow older. The African American elderly population has significant challenges that they must deal with. To begin with, many have health issues. Some that can be very life threatening. As people get older your body just does not want to work the same way it used to when it was younger. Your body goes through changes. As people get older, the body begins to behave differently.

Age- Most people in retirement are health and fit. They make valued contributions to society through paid work, volunteer work and by being a good citizen to the society and to their families. However there are higher levels of illness in people over 75. This is because as people grow older their bodies may be unable to function as well as it did, therefore they are unlikely to receive as much exercise and fresh air, also they may be unable to stand up for a long length of time and therefore may not be able to cook. They then could start eating pre cooked frozen foods. This all leads to an unhealthy lifestyle. Also there are many stresses that come with old age, for example illness

adults older patients are more frail and they have more complex health issues causing them to

Because the immune system slows down with age, seniors are at higher risk for illness and disease, and they often recover at a slower pace if they do get sick or injured. Sometimes, the body's immune system may even become disoriented and start to attack itself. This is known as an autoimmune disorder. Some common autoimmune disorders include Celiac disease, Graves disease, Multiple Sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

Personal space is a concept of sociology. Personal space is an approximate area surrounding an individual in which other people should not physically violate in order for them to feel comfortable and secure. It is the zone around individuals which they regard as psychologically theirs; they don’t want to share that zone with others. The amount of personal space required for any given person is subjective, it depends on individual. It also depends on how well you know the other person. It also depends on different culture and countries; and the gender behavior like men to men, men to female, female to female and female to men. The more intimate the relationship, the less personal space is involved.

Guilt can kill a person- just ask Arthur Dimmesdale. Thus, a person suffers from guilt according to his individual conscience. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne teaches the reader how one’s reaction to shame may differ from another person’s. How one deals with shame shows their personal characteristics. The characters involved in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, all show the different types of reactions someone might have from the burden of guilt.

How can nurses ensure that older people are treated with respect and dignity whist being cared for in hospital or in the community?

I really enjoyed reading your post. I particularly liked the fact that you talked about showing empathy to the elderly. All patients are different and have had different experiences in their lifetimes. I remember in the chapter “Joseph Red Hair”, Joseph had had traumatic experiences during his childhood and during the war. Most of the providers who interact with these patients cannot fully relate to the patient’s experiences because we have they have had different lifestyles. We should not be quick to ignore these patients simply because they have mental disorders but rather treat them as actual patients, or as we would our own grand parents.