Social Work

Description

How much emphasis should be placed on promoting health versus curing diseases in old age? Explain. Make sure to use material from the textbook to support your stance and cite page numbers where those ideas are coming from. If you do not cite and use information from the textbook/course, you will not earn points for this assignment becasue a major part of this learning activity is my assessing you on your mastery of the course material. Therefore, show me you have read it, understand it, and know how to apply it. 🙂

Caveat based upon the few posts already made this week – Please move beyond “diet = health” discussions. This narrative is moralizing a specific way of being in the world. This narrative also does not take into account minority groups or poor white families not having access to healthy, expensive, or hard to get nutritious foods (ie: Native American reservations food deserts is one example). See these stats on monthly income of poor older adults and ask yourself is this “healthy diet = better health” a reality for millions of adults age 65 and above who live on $400 a month? What about transportation to get healthy foods? https://www.ncoa.org/news/resources-for-reporters/get-the-facts/economic-security-facts/
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Please move into a discussion about the controversy discussed in the book about health vs. curing disease (ie: chronic illnesses) debate and away from healthy diet = good health. While that plays a role, this is a larger debate and superficial answers about well known factors will not suffice for this weeks posts. Look at what measures or programs could be in place to help all older adult groups when focusing on health and healthy behaviors? Should preventative health measures be taken in the U.S. as compared to trying to cure disease after it has happened? etc etc…. unpack these ideas further when thinking about the debate of promoting health vs curing diseases in old age. What is being done, what needs to be done, and what impact would it have on groups of older adults in society?

No aspect of old age is more alarming to most of us than the thought of declining health and threats to our functional ability and autonomy. We fear not only the pain and disruption of illness, but also how it affects active aging and our ability to perform daily tasks and remain at home. Poor health, more than other changes commonly associated with aging, can reduce a person’s competence in mastering his or her environment. On the other hand, although many diseases are deleterious, progressive, and long-term, they are not universal with age. Moreover, older adults with chronic illnesses may still enjoy a certain quality of life, and we can make modifications in our lives, no matter what age, that will promote physical well-being in old age. However, inequities by gender, race, and social class, which may begin earlier in life and intensify with age, affect illness and death rates from certain chronic illnesses, perpetuating health disparities.