Caring for Ageing Parents - Research Paper Example

? Care for your ageing parents al Affiliation: Care for your ageing parents Introduction Care refers to the process of providing support to other individuals. This paper seeks to provide information on caring for ageing parents. Ageing parents in the current society are those who are not able to take care of themselves hence require support. This gives a clear impression that older children have the responsibility of taking care of them. Caring for an ageing parent has become one of the most undertaken activities in the current society. Older children in every family are expected to undertake this because they are the only people their parents have. To the parents it is like a right because over the years they have done their best to make certain that their kids have the best life. When they grow old, they expect the same not that they want a payback but because they deserve it and have no one to look after them. Several research activities have been done to look at this issue and how it impacts the society at large. Fisher in his research, points out that there is negative impacts to the offspring and spouses of the caregivers. The negative impacts he points out in this case are both mental and physical. The physical health and mental health of the individuals mentioned above are affected because of diverted attention. Fisher explains this by mentioning that male members in the family fail to take care of their spouses and offspring due to the fact that they have their ageing parents to take care of (Fisher, 1985). The spouses and offspring of many individuals do not get to enjoy the love and care they deserve because it is in a larger percentage concentrated to the ageing parents. This means that they are not contented with what they receive. Shyu is another researcher who undertook research under this issue. Shyu explains that there is high competition between responsibilities of taking care of parents and taking care of the other individuals in the society. There is high demand in this case, because the care givers are not sure of how to divide this responsibility. The care givers are the ones who suffer at this point because they fail to choose what to do. They are in a dilemma state because they do not know how to equally serve the two parties (Shyu, 2000). Taking care of ageing parents according to Shyu therefore, makes it hard for the caregivers because at some point they do not have some peace of mind. This is another burden to them because instead of living peacefully with their family members, it becomes a conflict which makes it even harder. Dilworth-Anderson, Williams & Gibson, came together and carried out research on this same field of offering care for the ageing parents. After researching, they found out that there are various issues that make it hard for caregivers to perform their responsibility effectively. These issues include race, ethnicity and culture. These three societal issues affect the care giving process hence making it a challenge for those who are involved. This high demand makes it hard to share the responsibility equally. This is because the ageing parents require more attention as they are not in a position to take care of themselves. The other members of the family such as spouses are better off since they still have the energy to care for themselves. Increase in demand and competition does not only arise among the family members who are related to the caregivers. It also arises between the caregivers and the nurses who are assigned to take care of these ageing parents. There are caregivers who feel that they do not have enough time to be checking on their parents. In this case, they opt for getting nurses whom they hire in order to take care of them. The conflict arises because there are some parents who do not want to be looked after by the nurses. They rather want their own children to do this job. It therefore becomes hard because it becomes quite challenging to make them understand why the nurses are hired. At the ageing point they do not want to listen to many explanations. All they want is to see their children there besides them looking after them (Dilworth-Anderson, Williams & Gibson, 2000). Generally the percentage of those who hire nurses is high compared to those who do it themselves. This is basically because most of these adult children are quite busy all the time. The percentage of those who hire nurses is approximately 60% and the other 40% is those who do it themselves. These are the results which were acquired according to Dilworth-Anderson, Williams & Gibson. Franks and Stephens also undertook research on this field in which they concentrated on the husband. From their findings, it is clear that more men are known to take care of their ageing parents than women. Frank and his colleague point out that the percentage of men taking care of their ageing parents is about 75% while that of women is only 25%. From these results, it is clear that more men do the taking care than women. Many wives feel that their husbands are not able to provide of them because of the attention to their ageing parents (Franks & Stephens, 1996). They feel like these parents are given the first priority and not them. This issue of care giving flows on from generation to generation. As parents take care of their kids, the kids when they are a bit older they also take that responsibility and take care of them. This is what Bowers found out when he carried out research on this field (Bowers, 1987). Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that taking care of parents is quite hard majorly because of the impacts. It is of help to the parents but not for the good of other family members in relation to the caregivers. This gives a clear impression that those who benefit from this care giving process are the old parents alone. The other members of the family do not benefit because the attention is not actually drawn to them. The percentage of those who benefit from this undertaking is therefore lower than that of those who do not benefit. To the society at large, this undertaking has more negative impacts because those who benefit are fewer than those who do not. Recommendation There are various things which ought to be taken into consideration to make certain that care giving for the elderly people is made effective without any conflict. In the case where nurses are hired, the parents are supposed to be made aware of why these nurses are being hired. Even if some may become stubborn, at some point they will be able to get used to everything and accept the situation. Care givers who choose to hire nurses should also make sure that they hire friendly nurses. This will help to make sure that the relationship between the parents and the nurses is good hence creating a friendly environment. Those who take care of them personally should try and balance out their time and responsibilities to avoid conflicts. From the various researches above, it is clear that conflicts arise because other members of the family feel that they do not receive enough attention. To avoid such conflicts, care givers are supposed to manage their time so that they can give attention to both parties equally. This will help to avoid the feeling of discrimination. Implementing these practices will help make certain that both parents and other family members are well taken care of. References Bowers, B. J. (1987). Intergenerational care giving: adult caregivers and their aging parents. Advances in Nursing Science, 9(2), 20-31. Dilworth-Anderson, P., Williams, I. C., & Gibson, B. E. (2002). Issues of race, ethnicity, and culture in caregiving research: A 20-year review (1980-2000). The Gerontologist, 42(2), 237-272. (Dilworth-Anderson, Williams & Gibson, 2000) Fischer, L. R. (1985). Elderly parents and the caregiving role: An asymmetrical transition. In W. A. Peterson & J. Quadagno (Eds.), Social bonds in later life: Aging and independence (pp. 105-115). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Franks, M. M., & Stephens, M. A. P. (1996). Social support in the context of caregiving: Husbands' provision of support to wives involved in parent care. Journal of Gerontology, 51B(1), 43-52. Shyu, Y.-I. L. (2000). Patterns of care giving when family caregivers face competing demands. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 31(1), 35-43. Read More