Elderly Care: Family and Government Should Work Together

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As standard of living improve due advances in nutrition and healthcare and general living condition worldwide, so is the population increasing as more people live longer in all age group. As a result of these we have a large population of the elderly worldwide since most people live longer. As these groups grow old they become helpless, some are unable to work and while some fall sick to diseases like Alzheimer. The responsibility of taking care of them now either fall into the hands of their immediate family, and in some cases extended family and or the government depending on the culture. However, to make for a result oriented care the government and family needs to work together and culture can influence the commitment of family to the care of the elderly. Determining who is old could be difficult sometimes considering some people could still be strong and agile at an old age. So the World Health Organization came out with a standard to determine who should be regarded as elderly. Accordingly the world body state that “Although there are commonly used definitions of old age, there is no general agreement on the age at which a person becomes old ……but the UN agreed cutoff is 60+ years to refer to the older population” (World Health Organization). This research would examine two cultures and their way of taking care of their elderly; the people of the Kuwaiti and the people of Allahabad, a city located in Indian. The Kuwait is from the Middle East and are predominantly Muslims, 95 per cent of Kuwaiti practice the Islamic religion as a result their way of life is mostly gear towards the Islamic code of conduct with a mixture of western culture due to been colonize by the British. While the Allahabad which is one... ... middle of paper ... ..., professionals’ can still call on family member to make the social life of the elderly in care institution comfortable and without the thought of loneliness which can create depression. In order to ensure a result oriented elderly care family will always play an important role in the care of elderly even if the government or company intervene to help and ensure commitment from family member, culture will always be a powerful influence that would make family member commit to the care of their elderly. Works Cited Rashmi,G. (2009). System Perspective: Understanding Care Giving of the Elderly in India.Retrived from EBSCOhost. whyislam.org. Elderly Care. Retrieved from http://www.whyislam.org/social-values-in-islam/social-ties/elderly-care/ Kuwait Ministry of health. Retrieved from http://sgh.org.sa/en-us/technicalprograms/healthcare/elderlyhealthcare.aspx

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