My Experience With Older Adults: Course Analysis

I have always admired the senior citizens who are wondering how they have passed such long journeys of their lives. They not only have accomplished achievements, but also have done memorable works that deserve admiration, respect, and priority in today’s society. These old people may look incompetent and unexciting in somebody’s eyes and thoughts, but not everyone realizes that they are the people with greatest knowledge and experiences beyond their masters of life. From my own experience, whenever I see an old mister or mistress looking for help or in need of help, I can never ignore him or

Aging is very complex and highly individualized process which begins at conception and end with death. Variables such as physical or cognitive impairments, socioeconomic aspect, cultural values, and beliefs make an aging process unique to each individual. I interviewed an elderly woman using a set of guided questionnaires on the topic to further explore her aging experience. For the purpose of this assignment, I will refer to the client interviewed as a D.L., a changed name for a reason of privacy and confidentiality. During the interview, we explored a D.L. strategy to stay healthy, significant accomplishments of her life, hobbies and activities, retirement, and finally the goals for the future.

Researchers (Sung, 2004; Sung and Dunkle, 2006) also argue that it is important to find out the young adults attitudes towards the elderly in a society, as they are the ones forming the support system for the old generation. Sung (2004) explored different forms of respect for elders shown by young adults

At present, we can see some cases of elder abuse and age-based discrimination happened in Canada. For example, some employers, medical care workers and service staffs are not treat old adults as well as professional. It is an ageism behavior and there are plenty people don’t have awareness of human rights of old people. Therefore, it is necessary for people to be educated with that, especially the professionals. Furthermore, as far as I am concerned, the quality of life for old Canadian adults not only limits to the basic needs, but also older people want more and more spiritual demand and physical satisfaction. Based on the report, it argued that old adults should also have opportunity to the job and the mandatory retirement should be abolished and employers also need to encourage this positive employment environment. As a result, a professional society would teach people to respect the elderly, satisfy their needs and eliminate the bias of people for them.

Our society nowadays discriminates the elderly and they are being ill treated. However Primitive agrarian cultures very existence depended upon the knowledge earned from experience, valued their elders, but even they were o moved to killing the non productive members of society because of harsh conditions of subsistence living. (Carroll Estes, 2009)

"Are the old real human beings? Judging by the way our society treats them, the question is open to doubt. Since it denies them what they conceive the necessary minimum, and since it deliberately condemns them to the utmost poverty, to the slums, to ill health, loneliness and despair, it affirms that they hold neither the same needs nor the same rights as other members of the community. In order to soothe its conscience, our society's ideologists have invented a certain number of myths - myths that contradict one another, by the way - which induce those in the prime of life to see the aged not as fellow beings but as another kind of being altogether" (Perrin, & Polowy 2008).

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

“We all have respect for our elders because of their hard work. We wouldn’t be in the U.S. or have what we do now if it wasn’t for them”, Ivan stated during the interview. I interviewed Ivan Miranda; a native of Acapulco, Mexico, about elderly roles in his family. Ivans grandparents are the first and the oldest generation of his family in America, therefore, a majority of the answers are of direction of his family’s values towards his grandparents and the ethics that are taught by them. In addition, I came to understand more about his family’s thoughts on the importance of elderlies, along with the loss of their heritage’s way of life towards the elders.

How do you feel when you wake up? Do you lack of energy or fear facing the new day ahead? It’s question which elder persons usually ask themselves day by day every morning . It’s easy to understand why they have complicated feeling like this . In “Old before her time” , Katherine Barrett discusses how the senior citizens are treated in American culture. One of seven lessons she gave us , Lesson six “ you never grow old emotionally”, is the most significant lesson because of their psychological emotion , sympathetic and respectability.

This aspect of discrimination is one of many forms of abuse, but it is not the only one. Through physical, financial, psychological and emotional abuse, and through the acts of neglect and abandonment, seniors feel the insufferable pain everyday of their lives. To remedy the problem there are simple and ideological principles that need to be examined; dignity, independence, fairness, participation and security. If these standards can be utilized by society, we can rid ourselves of the terrible mistreatment of seniors.

Worldwide, with increase in life expectancy more women and men are experiencing the role of grandparent and length of occupancy in the role is increasing (Armstrong, 2003). However in America, after age 75, about 9 percent have difficulty carrying out activities of daily living (Berk, 2010). When considering the cultural approach of aging in late adulthood, we see that aging adults are treated differently depending on what community or cultural background they originated from. With the increase in life expectancy, many opportunities had been provided to psychologists to conduct research and practice with aging adults (APA, 2003). This has enabled many researchers to study aging in the United States and other countries. With those

But experience likes this can make them appreciate their age in looking back at the good times and what they have achieved in life.

Assessing and planning care of the elderly is important in enabling the older adult to have the best quality of life in their later years. Understanding their views on living day to day with what they hold dear, will help in planning care for the older person. In this paper, I will interview an older adult and describe various details as well as cultural relations surrounding my interviewed individual. I will perform functional assessments using the Tinetti, Katz, Home Safety, and Barthel tools, which will be included in the Appendix. I will compare any age-related changes and identify more than six preliminary issues that need to be addressed. Lastly, I will propose more than three alterations and

In order to explore the individual experiences of an older adult in the United States, we conducted an interview of a 78-year-old white male living in Silver Spring, Maryland. Throughout this paper, the interviewee will be referred to as Edgar; this is not his real name. The interview was conducted in the home of one of the interviewers because it is close to Edgar’s home. Throughout the interview, we discussed Edgar’s personal experiences with ageism, the physical and psychological effects of aging, family and social supports in old age, and the transition from work to retirement. While his experiences with personal aging are similar to that of many other individuals his age, his experience as full-time male caregiver offers unique insight into an unofficial occupation dominated by women.

“The best classroom is at the feet of an elderly person,” said by a famous American radio and television writer, Andy Rooney. Elderly has so much to teach the younger generation because they have been through an array of events in life that are worth sharing and knowing. The purpose of the study is to understand the experience of aging and late adulthood by using case study method through interview and informal interaction with an older adult. Given the circumstance of long distance, Skype is used to conduct the interview and informal interaction. Mary, is a vibrant and healthy Chinese elderly woman who turned 75 last summer. She is an atheist who has lived in Hong Kong for her entire life and would be classified as middle class lifestyle. She is widowed and lives alone but she has four children and eight grandchildren. Since she is active, healthy and independent, the “young-old” would be the best term to describe Mary according to gerontologists (Berger, 2014, p.675).