A Day in the life of an elderly person

In the 20th Century, the average life expectancy for seniors rose very significantly from just 50 to more than 75 years of age. There are a lot of contributing factors for this outstanding change for instance, improvements in public health care, vital nutrition, and advances in medicine. Preventative and early detection healthcare also contributed to prolonged life expectancy. Health and Safety in the workplace, and fewer people smoking and drinking added to the longer average life span. During the Roman era, life expectancy was between 22-25 years of age. By 1900 the average life expectancy rose to 30 years age. 1985 saw the average of 62 years. In recent years, 67-75 became the average. Many seniors, however, are living much longer with a higher quality of life as well. In fact, in the United States the average is as high as 83. The average life expectancy has increased thanks to the technological advances in medical field as well as better and modern lifestyle. This means that we need better and modern solutions to keep our senior citizens contended with their lives. In order to do so more towns are creating senior centers and services that cater to their everyday needs. Living in this day and age even when everything is both figuratively and literally just a click away from you can still be hard and challenging. As humans, we go through different phases in our lives. The things we see around us do not change that much but the way we interact with them in different stages of our lives, makes those changes noteworthy. Our reactions change with age. There are two distinct phases of one’s life that are very different yet very similar. They say, you become a child with old age which is essentially an oxymoron. Physically, you become feeble with age but your mind surprisingly becomes like a mind of a child. Following are some of the things we observed when spending a day in the life of an older person: We grouped seniors into two groups. First group includes, healthy seniors with no immediate life-threatening morbidities. The second group includes, elderly suffering from more serious maladies such as, hearth condition, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s etc. As Aristotle said, “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.” So, the 1st thing we noticed was that elderly people wanted someone to talk to. Not just senior citizens but anyone who doesn’t have a companion to talk to is prone to depression. Social isolation doesn’t just affect your mental health, it also increases your risk of heart disease, infectious illness, high blood pressure and cognitive deterioration. So, for the second group where they are already suffering from some disease, not having a companion makes it even worse for them. Spending time with them made us realize that their day to day life was not very different from a young person. But the old age definitely made It a bit harder. For instance, they were at a greater risk of tripping and falling while doing their daily chores. There were also errand running struggles. With age they often lose their ability to get out and about to complete their own errands. It was often difficult for them to go for groceries or other daily stuff which is never an issue for young people. A few other things that they had difficulties with in life included, keeping track of their medication, unable to maintain housekeeping, ignoring some symptoms of certain diseases, lack of help in emergency situations, risk of accidental overdose, sometimes forgetting medication in general and forgetting it altogether for days in case of dementia in specific were some of the things we noticed while spending time with them. As the age progresses, all those things become even difficult. One thing that every older person had in common was the feeling of loneliness at some point in life. Loneliness can be a precursor to depression and anxiety that can further lead to some even more complicated diseases. It can cause high blood pressure which leads to other serious diseases such as, kidney malfunction, brain hemorrhage, heart diseases etc. Keeping all that in view we, at Kandakacare have devised an excellent plan. Our healthcare workers are very professional in catering to all the needs of our elderly clients. We provide all the help from running errands to being a social companion to them whenever they need us.