Increasing burden of old age population in the world

Discuss different approach gives different result while caring elderly in aged care home.

Over the years, the global population has experienced considerable dynamics in every aspects of life, including the way of living, needs and requirements as well as in terms of the overall age demography. The age structure of the population has also changed with time, with the international demographic characteristics showing an increasing bias towards the elderly population (Kulik et al., 2014). In the last few decades, the population of the world, in general, is showing an increasing inclination towards the age group of 60 years and above and the same sector of the population is projected to increase even more in the coming years, as can be seen from the following figure:

Figure 1: Increasing burden of old age population in the world

(Source: Pharmacytimes.com, 2018)

Along with the increasing share of old age population across the globe, the changing lifestyles and other externalities are also contributing in changing the types of problems, mental as well as physical, that are experienced by the elderly population of the world, with the problems becoming increasingly complex. Given this scenario, it can be asserted that in the recent times as well as in the coming years, one of the primary concerns in global framework is expected to be the provision of proper care and a healthy environment for the elderly people in the different countries (Rashidi & Mihailidis, 2013).

In this aspect, the concept of aged care homes has been becoming increasingly relevant and widespread in all the corners of the world. The concept of aged care homes had been there for long. However, with time and changing needs of the increasing elderly population, the domain of operations and the approaches of provision of services of the aged care homes have also been changing (Alldred et al., 2013). Keeping this into consideration, the concerned research proposes to analyze and observe the impacts of the different approaches of care provision to the elders in the aged care homes on the quality of life of the elderly residents of the same, taking into account the changes in the needs as well as the service structure of these aged care homes.

Keeping the aspects of increasing demands for comprehensive care for the elderly population across the globe, the concerned research proposes to study the significance of the old age care homes in the aspect of provision of such cares to the old age population. In the light of the same, it also tries to analyze how the different approaches of care provision impacts the old age population in the aged care homes, taking into account the gender imbalances (if any) present in this respect.

Concept of aged care homes

In the contemporary period, as discussed in the above section, the old age population is seen to be increasing considerably across the globe and the projections of  the increase in the same is even high in the coming years. In this context, one of the major concerns of the policy makers as well as of that of the societies as a whole is the issue of provision of a quality life to the elderly population (Tesch-Roemer, 2012). This issue has to be emphasized upon so that the life expectancy, vulnerabilities, insecurities and other challenges faced by the elderly population can be taken into account and addressed accordingly. In this aspect, the domain of operations of different old age care homes and other residential care facilities for the elderly population have been increasing in the global scenario.

The presence of the reduction in the family size and increasing existence of nuclear families, along with the changing needs, both physical as well as others, makes caring for elderly people a difficult and continuous process, thereby, making it difficult for the working individuals to take of their elderly family members. These contribute even more in the increase in the demand as well as supply of the aged care homes across the globe (Parihar et al., 2017). However, the impacts of stays in the aged care homes are not always positive on the elderly populations and the impacts vary according to the approaches taken by the elderly care homes and also according to the individual characteristics of the residents in these homes. Addressing these issues becomes considerably important in the current scenario, in order to contribute positively in the aspects of improving the quality of life of the increasing elderly population in the world (Böckerman, Johansson & Saarni, 2012). This in turn increases the significance of the concerned project as it proposes to explore the aspects of impacts of the different approaches of old age care homes on the overall life of the residents.

The concerned project tries to analyze the different approaches of care provision, which are taken by the aged care homes in general across the world, with the dynamics in the qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the aged populations. The concerned research also tries to study the positive as well as the negative implications of the  approaches on the elderly people who tend to avail these services, taking into consideration their individual traits and characteristic differences. To study the same the project aims to collect primary data, both qualitative as well as quantitative, from the residents as well as care providers of several aged care homes in Australia. The project proposes to analyze these data in the light of the rising concern regarding health care and other care provision to the elderly population. It also tries to recommend steps and measures, which can be implemented to make the overall infrastructure and care provision of the aged care homes more contributing to the increase in the welfare of the elderly population as a whole.

Significance of old age care homes

The notion of aged care homes has been prevalent in the global scenario for last few decades. However, in the previous years, the provision of such old age care homes were mainly done by the governing authorities of a country in order to reduce the age related vulnerabilities of the elderly population, especially the underprivileged and ignored ones. However, with time and with an increasing aging population, across the world, the needs for the old age population have changed considerably, much of which calls for better infrastructures and timely service provision (Spijker  & MacInnes, 2013). The purchasing power of the contemporary old age population has also increased in general along with their demands. The disease patterns, life style issues and other complications have also increased the need for comprehensive and always available care providers for the elderly population, which cannot be always be provided by the nuclear families.

All these have contributed in the growth of the operations of the old aged care homes across the world, with the private sectors infiltrating increasingly in this sector. This has led to considerable changes not only in the number of the aged care homes across the world, especially in the developed and high developing countries, but has also led to incorporation of newer approaches of providing care and inclusion of newer types of facilities for the elderly population who choose to avail these residential services.

There have been substantial literary evidences regarding the changes in the approaches of the services provided by the aged care homes in the international scenario. Most of the literatures assert towards the fact that the services provided by the aged care homes in the previous periods used to  be basic and limited to provision of health care and nursing facilities, thereby catering to only the broad age related health issues and insecurities of the aged population (Leibing & Cohen, 2018). However, with time and increased commercialization of this sector, the quality of such residential care accommodations has increased considerably, with facilities like clean rooms, toilets, room heating and personalized attentions increasingly becoming considered as common amenities provided in standard aged care homes.

The approaches of provision of care to the elderly people coming to reside in these facilities have also become varied. The  care provision not only remains constricted to the facilities of health care and nursing but also includes the aspects of more warm and humane behavior of the staffs, increase in the number of services, emphasizing both on the health related issues as well as issues like mental crisis, depression, loneliness of these elderly residents.

Positive and negative implications of care provision

Another aspect, which has been observed in this context, is that there exists a discrepancy in the pattern of availing these aged care services, in the respect of inequalities, both with respect to different age groups as well as in respect to genders.

Figure 2: Gender and age wise distribution of aged care home population (BUPA)

(Source: Cpa.org.uk, 2018)

As is evident from the above tables, showing the population demography of the residents in the BUPA aged care homes, the percentage of female residents’ increases with the increase in the age and the same is vice versa for the male old age population. This thereby indicates towards the presence of gender-based discrepancies in the terms of availability of the services of the aged care homes in general (Misra, Lundquist & Templer, 2012, June).

With the changes and inclusions of new approaches, which are being implemented by the aged care homes across the world, especially in the developed countries where the problem of increasing old age population is more acute, it becomes necessary to study in depth the impacts of such services on the elderly population. It also becomes necessary to diagnose the hurdles and problems faced by the demand side as well as the supply side, in availing and providing the services respectively in order to increase the scope and feasibility of such aged care homes in the face of growing old age population in the world. The research also proposes to explore the issue of the presence of gender imbalances in the aspect of availing the services of the aged care homes.

Based on the above discussion the concerned research proposes to venture in this domain in order to explore the impacts of the usage of different approaches, clinical as well as overall ones on the people availing the services.

The primary question, which the concerned research proposes to enquire about, is as follows:

What are the impacts of the different approaches incorporated in the aged care homes on the health and overall welfare condition of the elderly populations availing these services?

The other questions, which the research proposes to address, are as follows:

• Which sectors of the elderly population are most benefitted by these services?
• Which sectors of the elderly population are lease benefited from the same?
• What are the different approaches and what are their implications?
• What are the perceptions of the clients regarding the pros and cons of the approaches?
• What changes can be done to increase the applicability and feasibility of the aged care homes as an option for better lifestyle of the elderly population in Australia?
• What are the affordability issues and how can these be solved?

For studying the above-mentioned aspects, the research proposes to collect primary data from several aged care homes in Australia, taking into account the views of both the residents as well as the service providers in these residential care facilities. The project aims to assess the data collected both in terms of quantitative as well as qualitative methods. The quantitative methods are proposed to be incorporated in order to make the analysis a widespread one, inclusive of large samples (Zohrabi, 2013). On the other keeping the aspect of the importance of ordinal and abstract information in consideration, the research aims to perform in depth interviews with a number of selected individuals and analyze the data collected with relevant qualitative methods. 

Sequential Activities by Week	Week 1	Week 2 and 3	Week 4 and 5	Week 6 & 7
Ideation of the project	ü
Literature Review Research Design		ü
Collection of the requisite data		ü	ü
Analysis and interpretation of collected data			ü
Publication of the paper				ü

Primary data collection and analysis

To carry out any research efficiently and productively, it is of immense importance to take into consideration the ethical issues and regulations that are present in the research framework. Considering this, the concerned research proposes to abide by the ethical standards present in this respect. It emphasizes on the aspects of asking for consent from the concerned respondents and also asserts on maintaining confidentiality of the people interviewed. The research also proposes to start the activities only after receiving approval from the ethical board of the concerned institution (Faden et al., 2013).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be asserted that the above discussion that the issue of increasing burden of aged population is becoming one of the rising issues of concern in the global scenario. With the increase in the old age population as well as with the increase in the complexity of demands of the same, the approaches and roles of the old age care homes have also been changing globally. In this context, it becomes important to explore the impacts of the different types of approaches of the health and other care provisions on the overall welfare of the elderly population. The concerned research proposes to explore these aspects, with the help of data collected from the Australian aged care homes and aims to recommend amendments in the current infrastructures present in this aspect.

References

Alldred, D. P., Raynor, D. K., Hughes, C., Barber, N., Chen, T., & Spoor, P. (2013). Interventions to optimise prescribing for older people in care homes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (2).

Böckerman, P., Johansson, E., & Saarni, S. I. (2012). Institutionalisation and subjective wellbeing for old-age individuals: is life really miserable in care homes?. Ageing & Society, 32(7), 1176-1192.

Cpa.org.uk. (2018). The changing role of   care homes. Cpa.org.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2018, from https://www.cpa.org.uk/information/reviews/changingroleofcarehomes.pdf

Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., Goodman, S. N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (2013). An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional research ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1).

Kulik, C. T., Ryan, S., Harper, S., & George, G. (2014). Aging populations and management. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 929-935.

Leibing, A., & Cohen, L. (2018). Thinking about dementia: Culture, loss, and the anthropology of senility. Rutgers University Press.

Misra, J., Lundquist, J. H., & Templer, A. (2012, June). Gender, work time, and care responsibilities among faculty. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 300-323). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Parihar, K. S., Dahiya, R., Billaiya, R., & Jain, P. (2017). Effect of Nuclear Family in Participation of Activities. International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS), 1(1), 28-35.

Pharmacytimes.com. (2018). The Aging Population: The Increasing Effects on Health Care. Pharmacytimes.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018, from https://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2016/january2016/the-aging-population-the-increasing-effects-on-health-care

Rashidi, P., & Mihailidis, A. (2013). A survey on ambient-assisted living tools for older adults. IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, 17(3), 579-590.

Spijker, J., & MacInnes, J. (2013). Population ageing: the timebomb that isn’t?. BMJ, 347, f6598.

Tesch-Roemer, C. (2012). Active ageing and quality of life in old age. UN.

Zohrabi, M. (2013). Mixed method research: Instruments, validity, reliability and reporting findings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(2), 254.