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Anthropology
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Elder people are considered to be those who are over 60
years old. It’s often a turning period in the life of
a person when he retires from his work and becomes a pensioner.
Also the age of the person makes a lot of impacts on his health,
as lots of illnesses start to progress with age. But still
often age is not a barrier for most people who continue to
live an active life.
That’s why elder people may be categorized on those
who are retired and those who continue working, those who
continue working part-time. By their health condition they
may be categorized on those who are special needs and those
who are fully capable. By age they can be divided on those
who are 60-74 years old and those who are older than 74.
Most of senior citizens who need special care are helped by
medical caretakers, nursing staff at the hospitals and volunteers
from different social organization. In recent years social
services and social programs became wider and cover nearly
all people who have need in them. Senior people who are helped
by caretakers mostly feel and express gratitude and thanks
to them, show respect to those who take care of them. It helps
them to realize that they are not forgotten by society and
that society is grateful for their participation in it and
now pays back by care. Still those elder citizens who have
mental issues caused by age and illness may show opposite
reaction towards caretakers, but their reaction usually doesn’t
differ from other patients of the same health condition.
Lots of elder people do have serious problems with health:
it may refer to different illnesses and to the whole poor
health condition of the organism in general as person’s
immunity because very weak with age. Most of them have a higher
blood pressure, so they have potential of getting a stroke
and insult. It means that they have to take medical prescriptions
on the regular bases and most of them have to take a set of
drugs. Elder citizens are more likely to have problems with
movement as they are more likely to experience rheumatism,
atherosclerosis and other diseases that prevent from normal
physical activity. The number of handy kept among elder people
is higher than among other age groups, that’s why elder
people with movement problems have to be provided with special
devices to ease moving: wheel-chairs, banisters, special bathrooms,
etc as they have to be able to use all public facilities equally
with able people. As lots of elder people are not able to
afford all medical prescriptions and drugs because they have
limited funds, they have to be socially protected and be provided
with reduced medical programs and privileged health care,
it also includes dental care.
Nowadays the problem of aging society is getting more and
more actual in many developed countries and in the USA. Good
medical care, different social programs and social protection
allow citizens to get the full advantage of life, keep healthy
and active. That’s why the number of elder people(who
are over 60) and who still work is increasing as most of them
try to keep professional fit and are rarely substituted by
younger who are less likely to be experienced in that professional
filed. It seems more and more often that they’ll be
active and work forever as most of working elder are in good
fit and have good health condition. This aspect creates a
growing number of unemployed or partly-employed young professionals,
as they have fewer opportunities to substitute elder professionals.
Besides the problem of growing number of elder people affects
social security and social protection systems, as they have
to pay huge funds to pensioners. It was also calculated that
in the year of 2020 social security system of the USA may
become a bankrupt, as it will be unable to pay pension wages.
The majority of elder people consider themselves to be full
participants of public and social life even if they have certain
kind of health disorders. The feeling that society needs them
gives them stimulus to live and to enjoy life. It also makes
them to enjoy life as they are independent when living in
their homes, even if someone has to take care of them. Filial
piety concept or concept of respect to elder is basis of every
culture in the world as obedience and respect of elder exists
in every system of moral values. Care from the side of relatives
and children are mostly the most wanted and the most desired
by elder people; little number of them agree to live in convalescent
homes, as they feel forgotten and not needed in such institutions.
From the other side most of them understand that their children
have their own life and that it’s better to hire care
taker for parents than to take care of them by themselves.
It creates a contradiction and dilemma in modern society.
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