Paige Barnes--PH Trends in the Elderly in American Fork, UT

The population that I chose to do research on was the elderly. I am currently trying to get into the nursing program. Since I am currently working with the elderly, I wanted to do more research on the problems and issues that affect this specific population. To find out more information, I chose to interview a health professional and friend, Chris Haddock, who is a certified CNA and works at the nursing home Bel-Aire.

                One of the first issues that affects the elderly and is continuing to affect the elderly is that because of their age, they become bored. Because they are bored, they believe that they can do more than they can really do. They over do what they are physically and mentally able to do. They can get themselves into trouble and into difficult situations. In addition to their boredom they mentally aren’t as aware as they may feel they are. The elderly are being affected by dementia more and more everyday and it affects how they see their reality. With the combination of the boredom and aging memories, they can end up hurting themselves.

                The second trend that is affecting the elderly is that there is more treatment for elderly rather than preventative work. In the world, there aren’t very many means that help prevent the problems that the elderly population faces today. There are more means of treatment such as nursing homes. There needs to be more preventative treatment that can help prepare the elderly to live on their own and take care of themselves, rather than just waiting until they are affected and putting them in a nursing home.

                The third trend that is causing problems for the elderly is family situations. Chris said that a family and either be a positive or negative influence. Chris said that some families can be very encouraging in an elderly relative getting help or trying to live independently. But the problem that Chris sees most often is the family being a negative influence. There are many aspects to this situation, but the most prevalent one is families can be enabling of the elderly. Sometimes we see that families don’t want to encourage the elderly being independent and that they are useless, causing these individuals to give up. As certified nursing assistants we are to promote the residents to be independent and when the family doesn’t encourage it, we see the resident slowly start to decline in health.

                In addition to the trends that have already been mentioned, food prep is something that greatly affects the elderly. It has been found that because of money and people unwilling to work,  those who are living in a nursing home are unable to get the nutrition they need. Many people want to prepare food that will be the fastest and cheapest, but with that, the residents can’t get the nutrition that they need. Since most of the elderly are already sick, they are in need of proper nutrition to keep them healthy. This trend is holding the elderly back from getting proper nutrition.

                The last trend that Chris has seen the affects the elderly is the Medicare. When an elderly patient passes away, all of their meds are thrown away. This represents an issue because there may also be another patient that could use that medication because it is the exact same prescription. This is a waste of medication and can affect more than one patient.

                These are all trends that affect the elderly in their own population. These are all issues in the public health world that affect the elderly and their living situations.