Elderly Care and the National Health Services - Essay Example

ELDERLY CARE AND NHS Old age is the closing period in the lifespan. It is a period when people "move away" from previous, desirable periods - or times of "usefulness". As people move away from the earlier periods of their lives, they often look back on them, usually regretfully, and tend to live in the present, ignoring the future as much as possible. Age sixty is usually considered the dividing line between middle and old age. However, it is recognized that chronological age is poor criterion to use in marking off the beginning of old age because there are such marked differences among individuals in the age at which aging actually begins. Because of better living conditions and better health care, most men and women today do not show the mental and physical signs of aging until the midsixties or early seventies. For that reason, there is a gradual trend toward using sixty five - the age of retirement in many businesses - to mark the beginning of old age. Aside from physical and mental decline among the elderly, motivation likewise plays a very important role in the decline in this stage. The individual who has little motivation to learn new things or to keep up to date with appearance, attitudes or patterns of behavior will deteriorate much faster than one whose motivation to ward off aging is stronger. The new leisure time, which comes with retirement or with lessening of household responsibilities, often brings boredom which lowers the individual's motivation. In spite of the fact that the number of old people today is growing, they still occupy a minority-group status - a status which excludes them from interaction with other groups in the population which gives them little or no power. This minority group status is primarily the result of the unfavorable social attitudes toward the aged that have been fostered by the unfavorable stereotypes of them. The National Health Services is considered to be the best and the topmost provider of health care service for several years. However, this recognition and stability in terms of providing the number one quality of health services to the people, NHS decided to make changes with their structure, policies and procedures in order to keep up with the changing time. The approach of NHS are now client-centered wherein the evaluations, interventions and treatments are catered to addressing the needs of the patients making sure that their concerns are being looked into and that their opinions are also considered in decision making processes. This patient-centered structure for primary and secondary care promotes patient participation by increasing their awareness as to what the health services are doing for them to help them in their medical problems and that their satisfaction is one of the main priorities of the NHS. In this way, the patients will become cooperative and motivated in undergoing the treatments necessary for their overall development. NHS devised several programs to address the needs of the patients from elderly care. They have created the Older People's National Service Framework and Champions Toolkit in which there will be the "champions" who will represent the elderly patients by making their presence identified and valued. This way, the champions will be the voice of the patients from old age and will also serve as the medium of communication from these elderly patients to the higher committees of NHS. Suggestions for improvement of elderly care will also be addressed and brought up by the champions to have these ideas considered and implemented after further studies and researches. As previously stated, the stereotypes and the minority group status of the elderly are being addressed by the NHS. The elderly patients are kept well-informed about their involvement and that their welfare is being taken into utmost consideration. NHS created plans to eliminate the stereotype and discrimination that the elderly people are experiencing as well as implementation of primary care and general hospital care which are well-suitable for patients in old age. The NHS plan has a time frame of ten years and there is an annual evaluation being done to ensure that the milestones of the program are being achieved in a timely, cohesive and accurate manner. There are numerous physical and health hazards facing the elderly. These medical conditions should be taken care of regardless of the elderly patients' economic and social status. The NHS made programs which will help the elderly adjust to the medical and hospital settings by providing them the comforts of patient care in a holistic approach. This means that specialists, occupational therapists and other medical professionals will work together toward helping the elderly recover from sickness. Aside from this there are also programs which ensure effective transfer of care from the hospital setting to the home of the patient. Once the patient is discharged from the hospital, the Luton Community Trust will help the patients recover and function independently once they are out of the hospital by having a rehabilitation staff support the elderly patient cope with the physical challenges in the patient's home. During the past decades or so, doctors and other health professionals have become increasingly active in their campaign to encourage the elderly people to become more involved in recreational or vocational activities to help them regain their sense of productivity which they had during their younger years when they were still working. The Rotherham Active in later Life of NHS enables the elderly patients find other ways of making use of their time like line dancing sessions. In this way, they will be able to decrease their feeling guilt of being "worthless" and feel happy about their current state since they have done their share of hard work when they were much stronger and capable a few years back. Aging is an inevitable process that everyone will have to go through. The changes are drastic and unstable. The ability of the NHs to adapt to the changing needs of the elderly will help facilitate aging in a stable and comforting process. REFERENCES: Davies, Peter, April 2007," The New NHS in the UK 2007/08: A Pocket Guide", NHS Confederation. Talbot, Alison, April 2006, "The New NHS: A Guide to its Funding, Organisation, and Accountability", Routledge, UK. Henwood M,1998, "Ignored and Invisible Carers' Experience of the NHS", Carers' National Association. Liston R, Mann L and Bannerjee, 1995, "Stress in Informal Carers of Hospitalised Elderly Patients", Journal of the Royal College of Physicians. Victor C R, Scambler S J, Bond J and Bowling A, 2004, 'Loneliness in later life' in Walker A and Hagan Hennessy C (eds.) "Growing older: Quality of life in old age", Maidenhead: Open University Press. Read More