Gerontology Case Study

Gerontology as a field of scientific study can be traced back to the late 1800s; a time when research primarily focused on the negative attributes of aging, such as health decline. It wasn 't until the introduction of social gerontology in 1983 that researchers began to more rigorously study the psychological and social aspects of aging. In recognizing that “successful aging depends not just on the prevention of disease and disability, but also on the attainment of peak physical and psychological functioning,” (Quadagno,

A is an 87 year old women, with a long history of health troubles including chronic kidney disease, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, a pacemaker insertion for her atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, colon cancer, breast cancer, mild cognitive impairment and most recently paranoid psychosis.

Patient L.H. is a 69-year-old married Caucasian male that is a retired teacher that lives at home with his

In DC, community based fall prevention programs have been rising to address falls but fall related incident, injuries and the cost has continuously been rising among elderly people (Costello & Edelstein, 2008). In the study conducted by Berland et al. (2012), showed that in home health, not viewing patient safety as primary prevention, lack of investigation causing fall and frailty of elderly adult have been some factors contributing to falls in home health. Falls negatively impacts an individual living in their home by causing them physical, emotional problem, giving rise to additional cost by losing workdays and income.

Falls are highly common amongst the elderly, particularly those who lack mobility, are in hospital, or are living in a nursing home. When an elderly person falls, their activities of daily living may be impacted due to injuries sustained from the fall. It is essential that precautions are put in place to prevent falls in all settings. This essay will discuss the statistics surrounding falls, prevention strategies, and the impacts of a fall on a patient’s ability to complete activities of daily living.

Demographics: Patient is a 32-year-old, moderately built Caucasian female; separated once with 2 children. She lives with her children in her mother’s town house in the North-eastern part of the province. She is currently unemployed and receiving disability from the state from sustained back injury. She has Medicaid insurance; speaks English and practices the Baptist religion.

Client reported no known allergies to food or drugs. Client reported that she has 8 years daughter. Client indicated her physical health "average". Client reported that she does not have a current primary care physician at the time of assessment. Client reported that she is not currently pregnant and does not taking medication for medical purpose. Client denied any issues in this dimension. Indicated no current condition or medications that would interfere with treatment. Client exhibited adequate ability to tolerate and cope with physical discomfort. No immediate biomedical services are needed at the time of assessment.

The aging process in late adulthood is called senescence. People cannot stop the effects of aging but there are alternatives that can help ease the process. These measures are not always followed because people make poor life choices such as smoking. Aging adults will even spend millions of dollars trying to slow the process of aging. No matter how much money they spend aging will occur.

The purpose of the facilitated session is to provide caregivers, seniors and family members with the information needed to prevent the risk of falls at home. The learning outcome will show that participants are able to understand why and how to prevent senior falling at home. The learner will be able to comprehend the various resources and tool that will help in showing the steps that needed to project seniors risk of falls.

One in six Canadians have a chronic disease, with these chronic diseases being especially prevalent in the elderly population, individuals 55 years of age or older. Elderly populations have four times the rate of chronic disease compared to the overall population (Government of Canada, 2017). In fact, population aging was stated as one of the three most prominent elemental determinants of chronic disease development, along with globalization and urbanization, by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005. One major form of chronic disease is osteoporosis, with related expenditures totaling over $2.3 billion per year (Tarride et al., 2012), contributing to the ever-increasing health care costs in Canada. However, many chronic diseases such

In deciding how to treat the issue of the eldercare facility bankruptcy information, it has been determined that Grass Man has an error in his previously issued financial statements due to the timing of available information. One might argue that an error in estimation would be appropriate; however the bankruptcy of the Eldercare Facility was not new information, but rather an, “… oversight or misuse of facts that existed at the time the financial statements were prepared.” ASC 250-10-20 [Emphasis added]

Aging is a universal phenomenon and humans are no exception. Gerontology deals with the psychological, social and biological aspects of aging process. A recent study shows that people aged 85 years and older are expected to augment from 5.3 million people to 21 million as the world reach 2050. In today’s world Gerontology has an enormous role to play so that the senior citizens could be analyzed and their needs may be addressed with compassion and empathy.

In the case study of the 75 year old woman these are some of the questions that could be added in the assessment process. The relation to the fatigue I would ask more question to get a better understanding in clarifying the direction. Like how long does it lasts when it occurs? Can you rate the level of your fatigue on a scale of 0-10 ten being the worst? Is it accompanied with a type of activity? Have you had any lifestyle changes? It is a gradual or sudden onset? Do you have any sleep disorders i.e. dyspnea? Do you sleep flat or reclined? This helps pinpoint the fatigue from different types. The types of fatigue are tiredness, exercise, depression, stress, medically like anemia, heart disease, emphysema. (Wilson & Giddens 2009)

Upon starting this Gerontology course, I was overwhelmed with the course expectations, having to complete an Older Adult Review project, weekly discussion board posts and comments with precise APA format (which I was horrible at) and lots of supplemental reading to fulfill the learning outcomes of this course. Nevertheless, I overcame all those obstacles and have obtained newfound knowledge of what it is like to age, firsthand, coming from one of my favorite patients which has cleared many of the stereotypes I had on the geriatric population. Thanks to this course and interviews with Mary, I have a better understanding of the geriatric population which will benefit my future career as a Registered Nurse.

My interviewee was a 70-year-old female who was re-admitted to CCC in March 7th, this year. Her primary diagnosis was status post CVA with left hemiplegia. Other past medical history includes major depressive disorder, hypertension, hypothyroidism, COPD, anxiety, GERD,