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Mrs. Jones's Self-Concept Of The Elderly

Decent Essays
Self-concept is an individual’s subjective perception about him or herself; this multifaceted set of reserved assumptions is one that greatly affects people even up until late adulthood (Mason, 2011, p. 360). At the age of 87, Mrs. Jones, the subject of the case-study, resides within an elderly living facility. Based on her previous lifestyle and recent activity, she seems to possess low self-esteem that can be portrayed through her lack of social interaction, possible depression, and pessimism. Among the four facets of self-concept—social, physical, cognitive, and academic—the two that impact Mrs. Jones’s self-esteem the most are the social and cognitive (Waller, Lesson 6). The subject enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and close…show more content…
Jones’s current situation and preconceived notions, it is important to assure that she is well adjusted to her life in a residential care facility. The initial step that I would suggest to assist Mrs. Jones would be to organize interventions to help promote and preserve intimate and significant relationships with the other occupants that will enrich social support. Beneficial activities may involve coupling residents with comparable interests and cognitive performance, instituting resident committees where residents can serve consultative positions for the facility, forming book clubs, and offering transportation so that residents may remain in communication with acquaintances outside the home (Howie, 2014, p. 67). Although these activities are targeted towards assisting Mrs. Jones, they would definitely be of advantage to all the other elderly residents as well; they work to counteract the possible sources of her withdrawal. For example, partaking in resident committees would allow for the opportunity to be of equal standing as the residential staffs and evade disengagement according to the social exchange theory. Mrs. Jones must love to read if she preferred to do it in her room and volunteer at the library; a book club would be perfect for her to continue to do what she loves and even provide similar services that she did at her library where she assisted individuals who had difficulty reading. In terms of her dementia, I would encourage stimulating activities that engage either cerebral or psychosocial modules to serve as inducements to preserve cognition or deter further cognitive deterioration; such undertakings done in a study by Karp and her colleagues confirmed the beneficial result of a dynamic life on dementia in the elderly (Fratiglioni, 2002, p.
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