In this part of my assignment I am going to evaluate the influence of two major theories of ageing on health and social care provision. Firstly, I am going to discuss the different services available to older people in health and social care.
In this part of my assignment I am going to evaluate the influence of two major theories of ageing on health and social care provision. Firstly, I am going to discuss the different services available to older people in health and social care. There are many services available for the older people and some of them include; Activities for Older People, Adult Protection, Community Transport, Home Care, Luncheon Clubs, Residential Care and Travel Passes. All of these services that I have stated are all beneficial towards the elderly. Firstly ‘activities for older people’ consists of a group of social workers that provide support and assistance in many ways. Tasks can include befriending, visiting, sitting, shopping and driving or any practical task which could help an individual enhance their daily living. This service will increase the individual confidence and self-esteem because they know that these professionals are here to help and encourage them in a positive way. This will help the elder individual be more comfortable with that particular individual or worker. Another service that is available for older people is the ‘adult protection’ which is an organisation across the U.K. that work together to increase their understanding of the abuse of vulnerable adults such as the elderly. The three main principles that make up the policy relating to ‘adult protection’ are as follows: Everyone has the right to live their life free from violence, fear and abuse All adults have the right to be protected from harm and exploitation All adults have the right to independence, which involves a degree of risk. This organisation brings a positive outcome for the elderly because it helps and supports anyone who is at risk of harming themselves or others. This organisation is very good at helping and supporting older people that suffer from some kind of illness or disability and minimize the chance of abuse occurring again. Community transport is another service that is available to older people. Not every individual will be able to use the network services like the buses, so a special bus called ‘Ring and Ride’ takes the individual from their house to wherever they want to go depending on the distance. This gives the elderly a chance to go out and participate in many social activities rather than staying home and doing nothing because they are not able to use the buses or cannot walk to access the buses. This gives the elderly the satisfaction that they will get onto the bus right outside their own home and dropped off to their destination. Another type of service that is available from the health and social care provision is ‘home care’. Homecare is a way of providing care and support packages to older and vulnerable people to help them live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. This support can be help with personal care for example washing and dressing, help preparing meals, prompting medication and shopping and domestic help. If the older person is living on their own, this will give them a chance to talk to the professional about any problems or even talking about what has been on television. These professionals are trained to provide the best service for old and vulnerable and try to create a positive atmosphere to make them feel comfortable around each other. This will give the older person a chance to relax and not do anything and at the same
time socialise with one another. Luncheon Clubs are clubs that offer healthy and value for money food for older people that are not able to make food or even this can be a drop in session. This will make the older person feel more free because every day they probably are having the same dinner or lunch, so this way there could be change at lunch by eating something new and healthy that will not harm their health and well-being. Residential homes offer accommodation, meals, support with personal care such as bathing and dressing. The staff is available 24 hours ...
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time socialise with one another. Luncheon Clubs are clubs that offer healthy and value for money food for older people that are not able to make food or even this can be a drop in session. This will make the older person feel more free because every day they probably are having the same dinner or lunch, so this way there could be change at lunch by eating something new and healthy that will not harm their health and well-being. Residential homes offer accommodation, meals, support with personal care such as bathing and dressing. The staff is available 24 hours a day and provide support for physical and emotional needs and care through short illnesses. If the older person cannot afford to own their own home or their home has been taken away because they could not afford the mortgage then residential homes are services that provide stability and care for the elderly. Free travel passes are given to the elderly. This is because they get their pension that is not a lot of money and with that pension; they will have to pay for their bills, food and clothes so therefore the government has chosen to support the elderly and the vulnerable by giving them free travel passed to be able to travel without worrying about money. All these services are good because they all provide help and support to the elderly and vulnerable with their everyday lives and this creates a positive atmosphere and happy people. Now, I am going to describe how far services encourage older people to stay active and how services create barriers to remaining socially engaged with others. Many services in the health and social care provision encourage older people to stay active. This is because more and more people are living until late 90’s because of encouragement from several of services promoting good health and well-being and ways to support older people. There are many healthy lifestyles that older people take part in to live long. Every health and social care service encourages older people to stay active because it improves their body function and increases their self-esteem and image. There are many different services that provide support and training for the elderly on how to stay active. There are many leaflets that doctors give to the elderly that talk about how to stay active and how it will improve your health and well-being status. I think that most of the services will actively encourage people to stay in contact or participate in activities rather than create barrier to disengage them. A lot of different rules and regulations have changes and amended over the past years, so is gives the people the satisfaction of doing what they want. In most settings, I think that the older people are encouraged to stay in contact with their friends and family and are able to live a normal social life. Individual Rights is one of the rights for the individual in the society to have and this means respecting them as an individual and meeting their needs. Most of the human rights, rules and legislations highlight the fact that encouraging other people always has a positive outcome and to be able to encourage the older people to stay active and exercise to increase their mobility and health status will improve the health of older people. Depending on the service provider, will depend on the treatment and quality of service received by the older individual. But in some cases personally, I think that the service user’s choice and values are not met. The example I will give is from a doctor’s surgery. Most of the doctors are not present that day because two of them have gone abroad and one is really ill. Left in the doctor’s surgery is one general practitioner and that particular day there are several patients to see before going on a break. That doctor seems to be rushing things because he/she has to get through all the patients and deal with them accordingly. The first few patients that he/she had, they dealt with them well but as time was limited he/she rushed the last few patients because of the time limitations. This can be example of the service provider not respecting and valuing each patient as an individual. This can happen regularly because the professional does not have time to sit down and go through all problems associate with the patient, this in turn leads to the patient not being treated according to their needs and mainly not being respected. In most care settings I think the service providers try their best to try and meet the service user’s needs and respect them as an individual. In some rare cases the service providers do plan all activities for older people. This might be because that particular individual is suffering from a disease or illness that causes a barrier for them to make a choice for themselves. Some old people are just lazy and do not want to make any choices for themselves so the service providers have to deal with them accordingly and plan their activities taking into account their needs, feelings and wants. It is essential for the service providers to take into account the service users needs and choice because this gives the service users confidence to take part in their own treatment and professionals can work together with the service user to come to an agreement that suits both of them. To be able to respect the service users needs will increase the quality of care given and it will create a positive atmosphere for the service user and provider. Also, respecting the service user’s choice will empower the individuals to stay strong and take part in their treatment. By giving the service users a choice of how to participate and help themselves in order to increase the quality of care, will promote independence for the servicer user and they will feel more relaxed and comfortable to use their service again. When providing activities for older people, respecting them as an individual and respecting their needs and choices will encourage the people to stay active and participate in the activity. Being able to respect the older people’s views, feelings and choices will make them feel comfortable around you and this will encourage them to participate in the social activity. Respecting the service uses choices and views will make them feel better about themselves and they will become more confident to take part in a social activity to have fun and socialise. Also, by respecting the service users choices will provide the setting with a more calm and happy atmosphere that will increase the self-esteem and image of the service users. Respecting, valuing and treating a service user as an individual will help them become more confident to socialise around new people and make new friends. Now, I am going to discuss whether disengagement is common and what will happen if it happens to all of us as we get older. If disengagement was in place within all the individuals this would have a negative effect on the society and the individuals living in it. This is because the government will end up running out of money to pay all the people living on benefits and they will not be a single person working to pay the taxes that consist of education, pension and all the benefits. If older individuals are being disengaged in the society then all the knowledge and experience will not be passed on to the younger generation. This will have a negative affect overall because the younger generation will go into the low paid jobs because they do not have enough knowledge to get into the high paid jobs and therefore, the money that is paid for the taxes will decrease making it harder to older people to live on their pensions. If pension is already low at the present time for elderly because they are not able to afford to pay for shopping, bills and everyday things so they cut down on the heating and do not use the central heating because they are worried that they will not be able to pay for the bill. More and more old people are developing illnesses just because of their living condition in their own homes. Due to lack of money given to the elderly, the elderly will isolate them from the society because they cannot afford to take part in any kind of social activities or even go down the road to socialise with friends. In this present time I think society plays a little role in encouraging people to disengage. There is more usage of drugs and alcohol that make the individuals more prone to deadly diseases that will affect how they are going to act in society and do not want to interact with anyone. I do not support this theory at all because I think not a single individual should not be allowed to do whatever they want and keep in touch with the society and their friends. Even in old age, people should be discriminated against because of their ability or age. Old people have a lot of knowledge and experience that they can pass on to the younger generation and help them. Old people should be considered as incapable of doing any job because if they are able to they should not face any barriers. Older adults should not be forced to get retired and isolate themselves from the society because this is the time where they can socialise and take part in social activities because they will not be stressing about any major problems. No one should be allowed to take the freedom and individuality away from older adults because they should be treated as individual with their own needs. Many people live up to their late 80s in the present time and this is because older people tend to stay more active, exercise and take up any hobbies and social activities to enjoy their time properly. Ring and Ride can be one service that might prevent old people to stay active because this type of bus carries the person from outside their own and home and get dropped off right outside the place they want to go. This prevents old people from walking or stretching their legs to go somewhere close. Old people that have not got major problems with walking but their family suggested they should use the ‘ ring and ride’ service, that particular individual will lose the activeness within their body and become more lazy about walking to a place that is situated five minutes away from their house. Another service that might prevent the older adults from being active is residential homes. When the older adult comes to live in this place, they are always staying in that type of environment because they may be going to the toilet, bathroom or even activities room but this type of care does not let the patients go outside the house or setting without a professional. Depending on how severe their illness is, they might not be allowed to go out totally, so this causes a barrier for the older adults to stay active, exercise and socialise with friends and family. One service that encourages people to stay active is Luncheon Clubs. This is a setting where a lot of older adults come to have their lunch. By going to this club might be an advantage to the adults because it may be a five or ten minute long walk, that would help their body functioning and they will be able to stretch their legs. Also, this club provides healthy food, that will help the adult’s body functioning and metabolism. This club gives the older adults to meet their friends and socialise and at the same time have something healthy for lunch. Another type of service that encourages the service users to stay active is the travel passes. This type of service gives travel passes to the elderly so they can travel to places without having to worry about the cost. Some older adults might not want to go out and get the bus because they will not be able to afford it, but ever since the government has start given free travel passes, this has encourages older adults to go out more and stay active. The activity and disengagement have a lot of strengths and weaknesses. The first weakness of the activity theory is that if the individual is willing to stay active and participate in many social activities, but is restricted to do so because of the illness that they are suffering. Lack of mobility and income can play a barrier when it comes to take part in social activities and hang around with friends. Although, the individual is willing to do so, but cannot due to the lack of functioning of their body. Lack of income can cause a barrier for the elderly in order to communicate and socailise with friends. I think that the disengagement theory has all weakness, mainly because no one in this present time is willing to isolate themselves from the society just because of their age. From the disengagement and activity theory, the most relevant theory relating to this present time, is going to activity theory. This is because there are more new rules and regulations coming out from the NHS highlighting the importance of living a healthy and active life to promote independence and increase self-confidence. New medication, exercise methods and healthy eating information is coming out all the time that encourages older people to stay active and live their life happily. Older people die in their late 80s and this is because there are new treatments and all the information I have given is supporting the fact that the activity theory is working on the older generation now as well. There is an increasing amount of older people living on their own, cooking for themselves and trying to keep themselves active because they know it is good for them and their body. Older adults are enjoying their retired life, to enjoy their company of friends and family. Most adults love looking after their grandchildren because they think it is fun and time passing. Some retired adults take time out to go on a holiday with their wife and family to get away from the old scene and get some sun and have fun while it lasts. There are many adults working in centers and clubs helping children and elderly people as part of their voluntary work. Nowadays, older adults participate in more clubs, pubs and more socializing activities to refresh their mind and play games with their friends.