Capacity and Inventory Management

GERONTOLOGY REFLECTION/RESPOND

4

Gerontology Reflection/Respond

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Some of the changes to the physical and the mental well-being of the older adult and their ability to negotiate the life changes

The aging is characterized with the biological and the physiological changes for example the sensory functions. This is affecting older people's daily functioning and exposing the risk of chronic illness, disability, and accidents. The biological and physical changes are also affecting the ability of individuals to cope with the most common chronic health conditions. The mental well-being of the individuals has affected i.e. changes in their intelligence, learning, memory, and the personality and increase in the wisdom. The aging individuals also experience mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, suicidal attempts, substance use, and dementia. The mental changes lead to the changes in the living arrangement and experience of the negative events. Elderly individuals are living in the hopelessness and this might take longer thus exposing the individuals to the depressive illness and the suicidal attempts (Kiyak et al., 2014).

Other emotional changes experienced by the elderly individuals include denial i.e. the refusal to acknowledge the changes that have occurred to them and this makes them ignore these changes and have the hope of regaining their previous physical and emotional well-being. These individuals also feel guilt and blame themselves and feel that they are in a position to prevent the loss in case they give the changes a different approach. The feeling of guilt leads to social isolation, depression, and suicidal attempt. Other emotional changes include loneliness, sense of helplessness, extremely critical and suspicious behavior, regression, and selective memory (Kiyak et al., 2014).

Elderly individuals experience changes in their skins i.e. thin and elastic and more fragile with the reduction in the fatty tissue. The reduction in the natural oils of the skin is making the skin to be drier and this leads to the formation of the wrinkles. The physical change is also linked to the loss of muscle strength and flexibility. This is affecting coordination, stability, and balance. Loss of stability makes it hard for these individuals to participate in the economic activities thus increasing poverty and lack of food and shelter (Kiyak et al., 2014).

Majority of the elderly individuals acknowledges the aging process as part of the life process. Nevertheless, some cope with the refusal to acknowledge these changes. This, therefore, implies that they ignore these changes and have the hope of having these changes going away by themselves. The physical and the mental issues might therefore get worse with time when the proper treatment process is not initiated (Yu, et al., 2016).

With aging, people are coming to negotiate their environment and this means that they are experiencing stressors less often especially the social stressors. Concerning the overall well-being, these elderly individuals have lower levels of adverse effects as well as higher levels of satisfaction as compared to the people in their twenties and thirties. Therefore, the cognitive, emotional, and social patterns that form the key features of the aging are quite positive for some elderly individuals (Moore, et al., 2018).

Elderly individuals do have different methods of coping with the losses and changes in life. The ability to cope with these changes depends on whether these individuals were able to make a fair adjustment during the adulthood hence leading to increased ability to adjust to the changes. On the contrary, when these individuals were resistant to the changes throughout their younger age, they are likely to continue to resist the changes and experience the adverse physical and the emotional effects (Kiyak et al., 2014).

References

Kiyak, A. H., Kawamoto, K. Y., & Hooyman, N. R. (2014). Aging Matters: an introduction to social gerontology. Pearson Higher Ed. Moore, T. H., Kesten, J. M., Lopez-Lopez, J. A., Ijaz, S., McAleenan, A., Richards, A., & Audrey, S. (2018). The effects of changes to the built environment on the mental health and well-being of adults: systematic review. Health & Place, 53, 237-257. Yu, L., Yan, Z., Yang, X., Wang, L., Zhao, Y., & Hitchman, G. (2016). Impact of social changes and birth cohort on subjective well-being in Chinese older adults: A cross-temporal meta-analysis, 1990–2010. Social Indicators Research, 126(2), 795-812.