Perspectives on Ageing - Literature review Example

Perspectives on Ageing An emerging body of literature as concerns the elderly in the society has been emphasising on the novel tradition that is catching up in Australia and the rest of the world, that of committing the aged into care facilities for the aged (Lieberman 2006, p. 164 – 207). The ‘old’ or elderly here, refers to the group that are past the working life age and that of receiving government pension (AIHW 2004, p. 23). Changing lifestyles have a lot to do with this emerging trend, where most members of a families are engaged in productive volitions and fewer and fewer people, including the women, are staying at home to care for the other family members (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). As such, young children and the elderly, two groups of people considered to be dependent and unproductive, are increasingly being committed to institutions of care, baby schools and care facilities for the elderly in this case, to allow the productive members of the society concentrate in other engagements besides care giving (Casey 2007, p. 94). This is an interesting development that has yielded three outcomes, first, the proliferation of care facilities for the aged to cater for the increased demand (Bellies 2007, p. 100 – 113). It has also led to more and more elderly persons being abandoned by their families in such care centres, the moment they reach that age of dependency and unproductiveness (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). Thirdly, it has led to modification of the role that old people play in their families where they used to participate as valued social members and are now viewed as others (Feldman 1995, p. 14). The changing perspectives can be explained by the dominant Anglo Celtic heritage inherited by Australians from the British society where an individual’s social value is prescribed based on his or her productivity (Ford and Sinclair 2003, p. 2). Cheek and Rudge (1996, p. 81) agree that people who do not participate in this ideology are excluded to deviant group of ‘other’. As would emerge in my interaction with Harry, the same stereotypic believe is now shared not only by the society at large, but also by the old people themselves. Following a memorable encounter with 82 years old Harry, living in a care facility for the aged in the outskirts of Sidney, several insights to the benefits of institutional care for the elderly emerged. This article attempts to explain the differences of my stereotypical attitude and preconceptions about people living in care facilities and what the elderly people themselves felt. Not only did my conversation with Harry illuminate the stereotypical images I had about elderly people, it also helped inform me of where such images had originated and what had formed the basis of my attitude prior to meeting Harry. Care facilities for the aged have emerged from the need to provide efficient and effective care for those members of the community who cannot care for themselves and whom family members are unable to provide perfect care for (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). The age group that is past 70 years for instance, has numerous and frequent health issues that need professional care (Bellies 2007, p. 100 – 113). The care facilities therefore double up in providing medical care as well as providing a living environment in which the elderly can spend a quality life before death comes. Having read much about care facilities for the elderly from the press, I still subscribed to the view that the institutions were used by irresponsible families to dump their elderly. I had preconceptions of those who live in such institutions as having been betrayed by their loved ones when they needed them most (Casey 2007, p. 94). To a certain extent, the care extended to the aged within a family setting can be attributed to duty and obligation felt by their children of giving back the loving care they once received from this same people (Casey 2007, p. 94). Just like the parents had cared for them while young, children usually feel the need to return the favour once such parents are aged (Casey 2007, p. 94). This was the school of thought I prescribed to prior to meeting Harry. I expected him to be full of regrets for having been kept off the family residence of his children and abandoned in a strange place being cared for by strange people. It almost seemed that the elderly were being handled up and excluded from social participation once they were past their productivity (Strazzari 1999, 194). According to Minichello (1992, p. 2), contemporary media has epitomized youth age as a commodity to be treasured almost to the point where old age is dreaded as being a plague. This was my mind set before I met Harry, expecting him to concentrate on narrating the negative experience of being away from this family and being in a care facility. Another explanation to my negative perception of care facilities for the aged is perhaps the fact that most films and fiction books I have seen and or read depicting the same, captured horrific places where the helpless aged were bundled up and grossly mistreated. When I was young, I had been introduced to an uncle who came to live with us. At first, I had thought he had come visiting for a while until after three years he had become part of my family. Despite being very young, I remember how jovial, playful, loving and very understanding the uncle had been. He became one of my best adult friends in my life until when at an age of 16, I was separated from him forever. After a series of serious and violent mental problem incidences, all of which happened in my absence since I was in a boarding school, he was committed to mental care establishment until he died two years later. I would later learn that he had only been released to our care after being in such a facility for many years prior to joining us. I grew up to regard such establishments as a betrayal of an uncle I loved. My attitude was never helped by the fact that he died there. Not surprising therefore, I had a negative perception against committing family members to institutions instead of caring for them as family (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). My expectation was that Harry would feel as bad as I imagined my uncle to have felt for being barred from having social relations with friends and family and being isolated in institutions (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). As ACT Community Health Service points out, social isolation defines the status in which individuals have no satisfying social relationships and involvement in the community life as normal people (cited in Moore, p. 101). I would however be surprised by Harry. Harry was happier at the care facility that he could ever be at Suzanne’s residence and according to his admission, preferred to remain at the reputable and cosy establishment than to live with his daughter’s family. According to Harry, he would become a burden to the family if he lived there, stopping them from exploiting their full potential and self-development. Harry took pride in his daughter’s achievements and was happy to know that he was not on her way to greatness (Casey 2007, p. 94). According to Harry, being able to live without being a burden to his family was of utmost importance (Casey 2007, p. 94). Harry’s advanced diabetic condition required constant and expertise care from dieting to medication. The professional nurses at the facility were capable of providing such care than his family. Again, he was more than satisfied with their visits and occasional treats that were according to Harry, “a testimony of their love and willingness to provide the best care to him”. He happily basked in the knowledge that his family was happy and successful and having the companionship of peers at the care facility. Notably, Harry believed that cultural change had worked against the elderly over the years where their age was treated with scorn, disrespect and apathy. It was therefore more preferable to live in a care facility than to be dependent on a society that did not appreciate them (Lieberman 2006, p. 164 – 207). Meeting with Harry helped illuminate several things that I had assumed based on my past experiences and stereotypical acculturation (Gelfand 1998, p. 56). I had also missed an important notion about care facilities for such persons as the mentally sick and the elderly. I had failed to understand that perhaps the medical needs of such persons were best catered for by professional care givers than family members (Gelfand 1998, p. 56). For the aged, health care was an important need and one that defined the quality of life for a person as he or she approached death (Battersby 1998, p. 19). I had also failed to understand that the people committed to such institutions could themselves prefer to stay there than anywhere else (Lieberman 2006, p. 164 – 207). According to Scrutton (1989, p. 87) most young people did not understand and or appreciate the perspective to life most elderly people take in reminiscence of their past. Harry perhaps understood this and felt that he was with better companionship while with the age mates at the institution than with his relatively young daughter’s family. Another key ingredient of a happy and ‘successful ageing’ is the knowledge that one has been a good parent and that his or her children were doing as important members of the community (Battersby 1998, p. 29). This explains why Harry was sufficiently willing to bask in the knowledge that his only daughter The satisfaction of the inmates in such establishments and their families was perhaps the fact that the care facilities were increasingly becoming ‘homely’ and very diligent in providing for the needs of the elderly (Lieberman 2006, p. 164 – 207). As I talked to Harry, he seemed joyful and radiant, just as his many colleagues who were leisurely playing games or chatting in the compound. They were smart, happy and almost always laughing. Harry himself exchanged pleasantries, jokes and niceties with the nurses in the facility, just as if he was talking to family members. The institution provided for their medical, spiritual and emotional needs, which defines the wholesome care of such facilities in modern times (Bellis 2007, p. 100 – 113). Meeting with harry helped me understand the care facilities for the aged in a new light, one clear of the many misconceptions and stereotypical attitude I had held previously. References AIHW 2004, Older Australians at a Glance. Canberra, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, viewed 16 August 2010, Battersby, D 1998, ‘Successful Ageing: Issues and Challenges’, in Successful ageing: perspectives on Health and Social Construction, eds C Bevan & B Jeewody, Mosby, Sidney, pp. 4 – 34. Bellis, A 2007, ‘Australian residential aged care and the quality of nursing care provision’, Contemporary Nurse Journal, vol. 35, no.1. pp. 100 – 113. Casey, N 2007, ed., An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family, HarperCollins, New York, pp. 94. Cheek, J & Rudge, T 1996, ‘Health for all? The Gendered Construction of Health and Health Care Practices’, in Health in Australia: sociological Concepts and Issues, 2nd edition, ed C Grbich, Prentice Hall, Sydney, pp. 79 - 102. Feldman, S 1995, Older Women: rewriting their Future, National Conference on Ageing, Charles Strut University, pp. 14. Ford, J & Sinclair, R 2003, Sixty years on: Women Talk about Old Age, The Women’s Press, London, pp. 2. Gelfand, D, 1998, The Aging Network: Programs and Services, 2nd edition, Springer, New York, pp. 56. Kane, R & Kane, R 2001, ‘Alternatives to Institutional Care of the Elderly: Beyond the Dichotomy’, The Gerontologist, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 249–259. Lieberman, T 2006, Complete Guide to Health Services for Seniors, Three Rivers Press, New York, pp. 164 – 207. Minichello, V, Browning, C & Aroma, R. 1992, ‘The Challenge of the Study of Ageing.’ in Gerontology: a Multidisciplinary Approach, eds Minichello, V, Alexander, L and Jones, D, Prentice Hall, New York, pp. 1 – 16. Moore, S 1998, ‘The Culture of Ageing’, in Successful ageing: perspectives on Health and Social Construction, ed Bevan, C & B Jeewody, Mosby, Sidney, pp. 95 – 124. Scrutton, S 2004, Counselling Older people: A Creative response to ageing, 3rd edition, Edward Arnold: London, pp. 101. Strazzari, M 1999, ‘Ageing, Dying and Death’, in Second Opinion: An Introduction to Health Sociology, ed Germov, J, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 189 – 207. My Conversation with Harry For this assignment, I chose to undertake a conversation a grandfather of one of my friends who is currently 82 years old and living in a care facility for the aged in the outskirts of Sidney. To initiate contact, we visited the old man, fondly called Harry, with my friend on a Sunday afternoon where I was introduced to him. I also got the opportunity to introduce my interest to interview Harry about his of the world and the perspective he has on ageing. We mutually agreed on an hour long interview on the following Sunday after mass. Harry was excited about my interest and very enthusiastic about our arrangement before I and my friend left. The appointed time for the conversation was at 2.30 Pm, during an allocated visiting time in the care facility. That was immediately after the inmates had taken their lunch and were all relaxing in the halls or outside the buildings under shade. On the appointed Sunday, I met with Harry and requested the nurse on duty to allow us use a secluded desk outdoors where the air was calm and fresh, free from disruptions as well as very serene foe such a reflective talk as I had in mind. I begun the session with explaining to Harry why I wanted to speak with a slow, methodical and detailed way to ensure that he was not only willing and interested to participate, but also aware of where my interest lay during the conversation. I did not write or tape record anything during the conversation so an as not to make Harry uncomfortable. I wanted the conversation to be as natural as possible. I however took notes immediately after the meeting about the salient points of our conversation. Harry’s situation necessitated that I ask some personal information questions so as to clarify my understanding of his world view. He was very forthcoming on the same, perhaps understanding that my friend, his only grandson, could have supplied the same information. Harry had once been married but he lost his wife to cancer ten years ago. The only child of the marriage, Suzanne, was married and had only one son, my friend. Harry had not remarried after his wife’s death, despite being left very lonely. Suzanne was a successful and overly busy attorney in Sidney and had no alternative but to commit Harry to the care facility for the aged after a mutual agreement with her family and Harry himself. Another reason that necessitated Harry’s admission to the care facility was the fact that he was diabetic and needed constant care by qualified medical practitioners, something provided aptly well in the facility. All parties were happy with the arrangement and Suzanne’s family frequently visits harry at the care centre, providing the emotional needs of their father as much as they can. During public holidays and other important occasions, the Suzanne’s usually fetch their father and spend a good family time together outside the facility before committing him back. The family is well to do economically despite Harry, an Aboriginal, having been born in a poor background. He had worked hard and made a decent fortune in business, some of which were inherited by Suzanne and her family while others went to charity a few years ago. Besides the personal questions, the conversation was centred on some of the issues I wanted to know about. I had spent the week preparing for the important questions I would ask Harry. I for instance wanted to know whether Harry, as a representative of the aged in care facilities, was happy that his family had chosen to commit him to a care facility instead of taking care of him themselves. I expected that Harry would prefer being cared for by his own family. Secondly, I wanted to know what was of utmost importance to Harry and his fellow aged, than anything else. To me, love and companionship by family members seemed to be the most essential things an aged person would wish for. Finally, I also wanted to know whether being old was accompanied by any stigma in how people regarded and or treated Harry as well as other aged persons in the community they lived in. It was my expectations that the old were always treated with respect, dignity, devotion and love by every community member. Narrative Before I attended the conversation appointment with Harry, I had anticipated that several pertinent issues would be raised during the conversation. I had expected Harry to comment on the responsibility of families to take care of their own aged instead of committing them to care facilities. In this, my assumption was that the aged would prefer to live in a family home around their loved ones instead of a care facility. Secondly, I had expected that once asked what was more important to him at 82, he would quote such sentimental needs as love, and companionship. I had also taken for granted that old people were always treated with love and respect, if not admiration and honour, by their care givers, families and the community at large. How wrong my predictions would be. Harry surprised me initially by saying that he was happier at the care facility that he could ever be at Suzanne’s residence. He would prefer to remain at the reputable and really cosy establishment than to live with his daughter’s family. According to Harry, he would become a burden to the family if he lived there, stopping them from exploiting their full potential and self-development. Harry took pride in his daughter’s achievements and was happy to know that he was not on her way to greatness. According to Harry, being able to live without being a burden to his family was of utmost importance. Harry also raised another pertinent issue that I had also ignored. His advanced diabetic condition required constant and expertise care from dieting to medication. His family, despite all the love and devotion, would not give him the care he needed and do it as well as the professional nurses at the facility were capable of. Harry said, “I am alive today because I am at the hands of people who understand my condition and how to control it professionally”. The second surprise that Harry would throw at me that day was that while he needed the love and companionship from his family members, what he needed most was to know that they were happy and successful in their own lives. He was more than satisfied with their visits and occasional treats that were according to Harry, “a testimony of their love and willingness to provide the best care to him”. He felt that he would better bask in the knowledge that his family was happy and successful than have them nursing him through old age. For companionship, harry said, “I have made very great friends here, who are my own age”, meaning that the companionship at the care facility was adequate. To Harry, knowing that his family was doing well, and having understanding friends to play bridge with at the facility, was what was most important. He however noted that he needed to see his grandson often, so as to get the opportunity ‘to inherit him my wisdom’. Finally, Harry mentioned a cultural corrosion of morals where the elderly were treated with scorn, disrespect and apathy just because they were old and most probably dependent. Having lived outside the care facility until he was 74, Harry said that the young people and the society at large had lost the treasure of their senior citizens. He said that in earlier times, the elderly had commanded respect where they now command scorn, love where they now command abandonment, and privileged where they are now ignored and pushed aside. Some old people were left on their own, others were disrespected by their own families and others maltreated by the social institutions where they sought for help. According to Harry, that is why living in a care facility was better than living with families since it eliminated the opportunity for such families and society at large to mistreat the old. At the care facility, the old were treated with dignity, respect and love, which if not real, was very professional. Harry noted that most of the care givers in the facility were devoted and personally ‘called into service’ for the aged. I was surprised by the responses given by Harry. I had expected totally different scenarios than those painted by Harry, as discussed above. After some deliberations and questioning, I was able to appreciate Harry’s point of view in regards to care for the aged. I realized that modern lifestyles had changed so fast and placed a demand for individualism in the society that it was possible that the elderly could only find effective and satisfactory care in establishments specifically designed and run for them, rather than out in a community hustling with overly stressful demands of survival, competitiveness and success in careers. I realized that Suzanne had done the best thing to commit her father, not just from her perspective, but also from that of her farther. By the time I left the jolly old man, I knew that care facilities for the aged, represented perhaps the very best option for most aged persons than pout there in the communities. Read More

Having read much about care facilities for the elderly from the press, I still subscribed to the view that the institutions were used by irresponsible families to dump their elderly. I had preconceptions of those who live in such institutions as having been betrayed by their loved ones when they needed them most (Casey 2007, p. 94). To a certain extent, the care extended to the aged within a family setting can be attributed to duty and obligation felt by their children of giving back the loving care they once received from this same people (Casey 2007, p. 94). Just like the parents had cared for them while young, children usually feel the need to return the favour once such parents are aged (Casey 2007, p. 94). This was the school of thought I prescribed to prior to meeting Harry.

I expected him to be full of regrets for having been kept off the family residence of his children and abandoned in a strange place being cared for by strange people. It almost seemed that the elderly were being handled up and excluded from social participation once they were past their productivity (Strazzari 1999, 194). According to Minichello (1992, p. 2), contemporary media has epitomized youth age as a commodity to be treasured almost to the point where old age is dreaded as being a plague.

This was my mind set before I met Harry, expecting him to concentrate on narrating the negative experience of being away from this family and being in a care facility. Another explanation to my negative perception of care facilities for the aged is perhaps the fact that most films and fiction books I have seen and or read depicting the same, captured horrific places where the helpless aged were bundled up and grossly mistreated. When I was young, I had been introduced to an uncle who came to live with us.

At first, I had thought he had come visiting for a while until after three years he had become part of my family. Despite being very young, I remember how jovial, playful, loving and very understanding the uncle had been. He became one of my best adult friends in my life until when at an age of 16, I was separated from him forever. After a series of serious and violent mental problem incidences, all of which happened in my absence since I was in a boarding school, he was committed to mental care establishment until he died two years later.

I would later learn that he had only been released to our care after being in such a facility for many years prior to joining us. I grew up to regard such establishments as a betrayal of an uncle I loved. My attitude was never helped by the fact that he died there. Not surprising therefore, I had a negative perception against committing family members to institutions instead of caring for them as family (Kane and Kane 2001, p. 249–259). My expectation was that Harry would feel as bad as I imagined my uncle to have felt for being barred from having social relations with friends and family and being isolated in institutions (Kane and Kane 2001, p.

249–259). As ACT Community Health Service points out, social isolation defines the status in which individuals have no satisfying social relationships and involvement in the community life as normal people (cited in Moore, p. 101). I would however be surprised by Harry. Harry was happier at the care facility that he could ever be at Suzanne’s residence and according to his admission, preferred to remain at the reputable and cosy establishment than to live with his daughter’s family. According to Harry, he would become a burden to the family if he lived there, stopping them from exploiting their full potential and self-development.

Harry took pride in his daughter’s achievements and was happy to know that he was not on her way to greatness (Casey 2007, p. 94). According to Harry, being able to live without being a burden to his family was of utmost importance (Casey 2007, p. 94). Harry’s advanced diabetic condition required constant and expertise care from dieting to medication.

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