Health Care Applications The AAL concerns and developments are in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) active ageing framework [7]. Active ageing emphasizes an enabling positive thinking. While a disabling perspective leads to isolation and dependence and increases the needs of older people, an enabling view focuses on maintaining the older adult’s functions and expanding their participation in all aspects of the society. Enabling instruments such as ALL devices and applications are essential, considering the fact that as people age their quality of life (i.e. perception of the position in life in the context of the surrounding culture and value system) is largely determined by their ability to maintain autonomy (i.e. ability to …show more content…
Meeting the specific individual needs, namely providing care services at the home of the individuals together with intelligent applications, is one of the main strategies to guarantee independent living of older people. Considering this context, important AAL goals are to promote personal (e.g. medication reminder) and distance support (e.g. telerehabilitation programs) or to provide the caregiver with accurate, up to date information so that the right care at the right time can be delivered (e.g. continuous monitoring of physiological parameters or behaviors, emotions and activities). These goals can contribute to the overall effort to provide personalized (i.e. less organization-centered and more focused on the individuals) and affordable access to essential services with efficacy and efficiency. A combination of conventional service provisions together with home care solutions and intelligent applications have been designed in a considerable number of AAL projects [4] and might contribute to the required framework for independent living conditions. For that, in what concerns the health care domain, AAL devices and applications should promote a digital health continuum where health and social evidence and personal data can be used in the entire range from lifestyle management to hospitalization or institutionalization, which includes health prevention and promotion,
Activity theory of aging suggest that when elderly people interact with the community and include activities in their daily routine they are their happiest (Baird, 2011, p. 187). Ariel stated that “everyone need some form of release” (Lemmon, 1995).
Successful aging is a complicated and multifaceted concept that varies contextually among individuals, disciplines, and even time. Gerontologists have traditionally considered a person to have aged successfully upon having reached old age with their physical health, mental well-being and spirit still intact. Ultimately, successful aging is a matter of personal perspective, largely influenced by an individual 's values and experiences. Even those within America 's elderly population hold conflicting perspectives on what it means to have aged successfully. A qualitative study published by Reichstadt and Sengupta titled Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging, concluded that “older adults viewed successful aging as a balance between self-acceptance and self-contentedness on one hand and engagement with life and self-growth in later life on the other” (Reichstadt, "Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging: Qualitative Interviews", pp. 567-575.)
ADL’s aid in making the person appear and feel more independent. In the experiment, the hypothesis was described to show the outlooks on care that the authors were trying to prove adequate or inadequate. The purpose of this quote is to show that the prediction will lead to older people being able to complete everyday tasks, since they are being provided the chance, given that their health is more stable.
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
After spending an afternoon interviewing my elderly father-in-law, I gained insight into how he perceives the aging process and the impact on the quality of his life. First, and foremost he viewed aging in a very positive and healthy manner. He believes that a positive attitude assists in accepting physical and psychosocial changes and enjoyed the fact that he and his wife are both physically fit and cognitively alert. He felt confident that advances made in health care and the quality of their lives would continue to be empowering. He enjoys the benefits of being a senior citizen including discounted travel, free education, and other incentives marketed towards seniors. He expressed a sense of well-being with respect to the numerous
More and more people will need care in old age, and if they are disabled. Millions of Americans suffer from a chronic illness, or some kind of disability, and many of these people will have limits in their daily activities. Some people experience
After spending an afternoon interviewing my elderly father-in-law, I gained insight into how he perceives the aging process and the impact on the quality of his life. First, and foremost he viewed aging in a very positive and healthy manner. He believes that a positive attitude assists in accepting physical and psychosocial changes and enjoyed the fact that he and his wife are both physically fit and cognitively alert. He felt confident that advances made in health care and the quality of their lives would continue to be empowering. He enjoys the benefits of being a senior citizen including discounted travel, free education, and other incentives marketed towards seniors. He expressed a sense of well-being with respect to the numerous
The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. People are living longer which means that the population of older adults, those sixty years and over, is growing. It is projected that by the year 2040, older adults will far outnumber school age children. Older adults are currently healthier and lead more productive lives than ever before, due in part to modern medicine and the new idea of seeing older people for their potential rather than their problems. This has prompted the concept of “creative aging” or “successful aging.” This positive view of aging is not new, only the terminology. Cicero, the Roman philosopher, is perhaps the first to introduce the idea of “good aging” in his essay, “On Old Age” which was penned in the year 44 BC. He wrote this essay in his early 60’s to show that old age is not a phase of decline and loss, and if approached properly becomes a time for positive change and productive functioning (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). Over the last few decades the subject of
Cutting edge technology like household sensors grow to learn the habits of a senior to ensure they are doing well. If the system doesn’t register the senior moving from their bedroom at a certain hour or other daily routines, an alert will go out to notify proper responders. In other areas of need, Selfhelp understands the importance of interaction. That’s why their Senior Source technology transports seniors into classrooms and activities with skilled teachers and other seniors. By doing so, everyone is able to socialize and think
With the advances in medical care, better health practices, improved nutrition, and other factors help people live longer. As long as older adults are following the correct measures, they can help counter the effects of aging because this stage here most people retire, they need to stay active and keep eating healthy foods. By not living actively can lead to his or her body shutting down, and may also lead to an early death. Many programs are available that older adults can join to
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.
Alzheimer's is an irreversible disease that affects the brain and how a person's memory and thinking works. In the future, scientists hope to create a drug that would treat the disease or delay the process. There is no cure for alzheimer’s, but there are now drugs to help mask the symptoms of alzheimer’s, and various technology that people can use to help them with daily life. There was not always technology to help people with alzheimer’s disease, but now there are various technological devices, such as various automated reminders, clocks and calendars, medication aids, location devices, and communication aids, and many to come in the future.
As aging is a stage of development that cannot prevented, the question of “can one’s aging be more successful than another?” is posed my many. Researchers continually consider the differences between aging successfully, and aging unsuccessfully. As researchers work to complete their studies, many find a reoccurring basis of successful aging. A basis of successful aging can be set including: physical health disease free, chronic illness free, mental health disease free, among many others. The only problem with this basis is the difference from person to person in terms of what makes aging successful. As individuals age, their mental state is a large predictor of how the person will age. A positive mental state about aging, will have a more positive effect on a person’s aging process. Many factors may influence the positivity of aging, such as negative aging stereotypes and discrimination because of older age. These negative aging stereotypes include but are not limited to: older adults are not as smart, older adults are angry all the time, older adults are bad drivers, older adults are isolated and never socialize. In adult aging and development, having a positive outlook on aging will lead to better mental and physical aging.
Knowing and having an understanding of what ageing stands for, remains an important step, growing-up or growing older and ageism are theories about older individuals. Ageism includes preconceptions that elderly are categorized for their age and perceived as weak, and incapable of performing tasks and needy of others (Quadagno, 2014). Another view about elderly individuals is the way they are looked down on by the younger society, i.e. elderly are not as intelligent as their younger competitive working force. People fear what they do not know and do not understand. Age transpires as something that must be lived through in order to understand what ageing means; looking back on one’s life and seeing accomplishments made,
The American population is getting older which presents us with many challenges but also present us with potential opportunities. With the length of life and quantity and fraction of older persons rise in most industrialized and many evolving nations, a crucial question is whether this population will be accompanied by continued or better-quality health, an improving quality of life, and adequate social and cost-effective resources. This answer lies in the ability of peoples and societies, as well as modern social, governmental, financial, and health service delivery systems, to provide optimum assistance to older persons.