The Protective effect of social support on health in older adults
Thesis Statement
This paper aims to determine the significance on the protective effect of social support on health in older adults. This is because the psychological capacity of older adults is essential to shape up their means of having a more productive lifestyle in the future. Having a social support system is one of the most important ways to ensure that the emotional integrity of an adult ensures that their credibility becomes an advantage that always carry out positive character and behavior.
Part I: Summary
Older adults are in a stage wherein they are experiencing either a worthy self-actualization or in despair. However, older adults are sensitive enough to suffer from depression, a condition wherein the psychological capacity of older adults is fragile during their age. People in this age ranges technically from 65 and above. In this age range, older or elder adult experiences isolation, which makes them agile to any environmental issues that impacts their psychological welfare. Most elderly live alone at their homes, in pension houses, or in nursing care aid centers, which is where they spent their retirement age at home. At this phase, the emotional well-being of elderly adults usually suffers from emotional despair because most of their family members have already established a new family. On the other hand, older adults live alone for the rest of their life because their lifetime partner has already passed away, turning them into a widowed elderly.
Social support is referred to as a process of rendering support for a certain target groups needing en efficient and long-term interpersonal relationship. This is a form of social interaction that can be applied towards older adult groups because it is a way to enhance their psychological integrity to be improved and uplifted. Providing an efficient social support system takes a long process because target groups who wanted to experience constant social support could alleviate their stagnant social system. Social support system is usually applied by health care professionals who were trained to provide a therapeutic advantage for those who want to alleviate signs and symptoms of emotional distress. As for the case of older adults, social support system seeks to measure the emotional consistency of their emotional well-being. Social support system will be terminated when the patient already recovered from their emotional-distress or psychological incapacities from the past as indicated by Zamora, et al., (2017).
Background
Social support towards older adults is mainly affected by their comprehension. As a person gets older, their ability to use their social interaction is not as efficient when they were younger because they are already having difficulty using proper words to maintain an efficient interpersonal relationship. Supporting the social needs of older adults is one of the most efficient ways to maintain a sound social support system, which encourages these age bracket group to prevent social deterioration from other groups. As they further grow older, their cognitive and emotional perception. Older adults need more social support because most of them are all living alone. In some circumstances, their family members are no longer around the provide care for them because they already have their own family to concentrate on. Older adult usually end up depressed because they have no one to talk to and express their emotions as they seek for social support from other individuals even from other strangers whom they are not familiar with others.
Protective effect of social support on health in older adults is a critical advantage for institutions offering services that provides care for this particular group. The reason behind is that older adults are vulnerable to a variety of factors that could risk their safety, health, and social integrity. As a result, older adults become anxious to their external environment because they are concerned whom to trust with their personal issues. As a protection, social security is one of the main advantage points applied for older adults. The reason behind is that social security aims to promote the psychological and social support system for older adults. Having a secured social environment as manifested by the existing support encourages older adults to lend their trust and cooperation to any activities that they are involved as claimed by White, et al., (2014).
Concept of ageing and geriatric health
Ageing is a physiological process wherein a person starts to experience a deteriorating health issues. In literal sense, this is the process wherein the person becomes older as time goes by. Older individuals are aged 65-years-old and above are classified in this particular group due to the age-related demographical status. One distinctive process observed from an individual undergoing the ageing process is that their skin appears to have a lesser elasticity over time. The reason is due to the degenerative process of the cells and tissues that is no longer being activated by hormones, leaving the skin to look drier and less supple. Other smooth muscles across the body of an individual will also suffer similar fate because their body starts to react with the degenerative process wherein the body becomes vulnerable for experiencing a total degeneration process over time. Organs become less and less functional because the synthesis contributed by hormones that is no longer applied.
Geriatric health pertains to a branch of medical studies that deals with the geriatric health of a certain age group. This includes the elderly group, which is the oldest age group for a certain human being. This is the last stage wherein it is specifically intended to concentrate on the health of the older adults who needs protective social support on their health care process. The protective effect is crucial in this particular age group because elderly are fragile individuals who experiences physiological degradation over time. Social support system is important for the older adults because they are usually being left behind by their family member who already has their new nuclear household elsewhere. Elderly population is usually confronted with despair due to their current situation wherein they have been affected by their emotional integrity. As they gradually lose their mental and physiological integrity, they are vulnerable to environmental stressors that could further harm their health as indicated by Watt, et al., (2014).
Part II: A. Factors affecting social support for older adults
1. Psychological factor: Psychology concentrates on the thought, value, and the expressive integrity of older adults as it focuses on their ability to feel. As older adults, psychology plays an important role that controls the way they behave and act. This pertains to the ability of the person to control their behaviors through their emotions. Their decision making process is influenced by their social support system due to the existence of their family members, relatives, friends, and former coworkers. Professional health care and social care providers also play an important role for enhancing their psychological integrity of the patients and non-patients who are older adults. Their expressive thought is manifested by their perception due to their observation from the outside environment. This is a lifetime observation towards older adults, which has been playing an important role for sustaining their decision making process with other individuals.
2. Social factor: In every person, having a mutual relationship with other individual creates an optimistic relationship between two or more individuals, groups, and organizations. Social factor is an important issue affecting the roles of older adults. Socialism is the external support affecting older adults because it is one of the most efficient ways to ensure that the value of their social relationship with other individuals becomes more efficient and available. Interpersonal relationship falls in this factor because it is focused on the interactive relationship of older adults together with other individuals such as social service providers or health care providers. Social support can be observed from the family and social background of the older adults. Their emotional stability can be based from the nature of their social background that affects their interpersonal relationship with other individuals such as relatives, care providers, and friends to promote efficient social interaction according to Hall, et al., (2010).
3. Mental health factor: Cognition is another important issue concerning with older adult’s ability to comprehend with ideas that translates their expressions. This is all about their thought process that shapes the way older adults think. As the person is in their 40’s their brain starts to deteriorate due to the natural changes that can be observed in their brain’s decreasing number of neuron cells. By the age of 65, the thought process of most adult underperforms in contrast to their younger years. Their ability to use their memory perception is not as efficient as when they were younger during their teens, 20’s and 30’s. In this case, their level of social support deteriorates due to their inability to comprehend with other individuals who might not be able to improve their social and emotional relationship. This is because some elderly might not recall their past memorable experiences or having difficulty identifying other individuals.
4. Physiological factor: Elderly individuals are individuals experiencing a deteriorating physiological health. All parts of a person’s body deteriorate whenever they reach old age as experienced by older adults. Their muscle’s fibers and elasticity will loosen as years go by. As a result, their ability to communicate with other individuals starts to impact their relationship, especially when establishing an interpersonal communication. The level of rapport will change because their ability to comprehend with the communicative factor enhances their sociological behavior changes over time such as when they get older and older. The muscles in their sensory organs such as their gustatory, eyes, ears, nose, and sense of touch changes, distorting their sensory perception. The social support integrity of this particular age group is observed to have a difficulty on both receiving and sending messages, which plays a critical role to engage rapport with other individuals or groups during an active conversation according to Lee, et al., (2009).
B. Protective effects of social support
1. Security effect: Whenever social support system is applied on older adult’s health, the sense of security is applied and implemented in the long term. Having a secured environment on their health gives older adults the impression of containing their social environment that can improve their sense of social security. In this effect, they feel that they are protected by the social support groups providing the proper care for older adults. Older adults always seek for someone who is able to provide them with social support, care, and security with others. Their anxiety level will be alleviated because the presence of having a secured environment will make them feel more comfortable. With the absence of their family members who should be protecting their social support system, there are other alternative individuals who can replace their loved ones to secure their interpersonal relationships with other individuals.
2. Emotional effect: The protective effect on older adult’s feeling cater their perception and decision making to become more interactive. Feeling is the most important impact when older adults will be provided with protective effect on social support on their health. This process translates an empathetic way of developing an efficient rapport with other individuals. Sustaining an efficient rapport enhances an individual to ensure that their psychological integrity becomes productive without experiencing any doubt with their social environment. Their emotions reflect their ability to either accept or reject any activities that they are required to participate due to the sense of protective security. As an emotion, the degree of their role enhances their feelings to become more responsive to any social activities that they are involved. When they start to build their trust and cooperation to a certain interactive process, this means that their social support and perception will be perceived as secured as mentioned by Lachman & Agrigoroaei (2010).
3. Physiological effect: There is a significant protective effect of social support on the health of older adults. Whenever they are actively participating in a social-related activities and practices, all parts of their body starts to become mobile. Thus, all hormones and cells throughout the body is activated and then start to be in motion. When cells, tissues, an organs starts to activate such as when they are in motion, the process of degeneration will be either delayed because there is an active synthesis of hormones that are released across the body. Social support provides an external stimulus for the older adult to activate their physiological response to become more productive and proactive. When social support procedures and activities takes place constantly, the level of interactive environment is always beneficial with the older adult becomes responsive. This particular process could further boost the social support system on the health of older adults.
4. Cognitive effect: The protective effect of social support with the cognitive system increases logical perception as well as memory function of older adults. It tries to disrupt the degenerative process of neurons because the brain’s activity enhances the brain’s muscle cells to constantly release hormones that will help the neurons to become active. Social support system encourages individuals to become responsive to any individual whom they are currently having a conversation. Interactive process allows the brain to process information so that deterioration process will be delayed for as long as there is a continuous process of interaction. This is because whenever the brain functions, there are hormones being released by several glands to activate the brain’s synthesis. This means that older adults can still continue to refresh their memory, improve their logical expression, and able to engage in an efficient conversation, indicating a protective social support efficiency in their health according to Farag, et al., (2016).
C. Challenges and applications of social support
One of the main challenges is all about the financial issues involved with the application of protective effect of social support on health in older adult. Finance is one of the most important issues affecting the operational framework of an institution. This is because it is the foundation wherein it fuels the organizational application of an involved institution to improve social support systems for older adults. One example is when sponsors are unable to renew their contract with the institution providing a continuous protective effect of social support on health in older adults. The reason behind is that the sponsor is no longer have the financial capacity to continue their sponsorship because they might be already bankrupt. As a result, the effect of social support on the health in older adults might be compromised that would lead into disruption of health of the older adults who has been seeking for a long term social support system as mentioned by Chen & Feeley (2014).
The risk of injury is always crucial for maintaining a protective effect of social support on health in older adults. Even if they are under a close supervision of health care workers, there are still slim chances that the level of protection because older adults are agitated every after sessions of therapy, social interactions, and activities. They tend to wander around the facility or in every open space that makes them vulnerable of being lost or encounter an accident. Older adults have longer healing process when their body parts encountered an injury. Older adults can also suffer from opportunistic infections whenever they are injured because their immune system is not that efficient enough to immediately restore incoming infective agents inside the body. This particular challenge keeps the body from being at risk for complications brought about by the existing injury affecting the body’s recovery process.
Social support application
Psychotherapy is always applied for patients or elderly individuals who need a comprehensive medical and psychological attention. Older adults are individuals who are already suffering from health deterioration process. This is one of the most likely processes that affect the way they perform their range of motion activities on a daily basis. It enhances the psychological integrity to become more proactive by means of enhancing therapeutic procedures applied for the older adults on a regular basis. One example is cognitive-behavioral therapy because it is a therapy that seeks to improve their memory and logical expression to prevent their minds from forgetting things that could risk their safety and security. Emotional therapy enhances their psychological integrity to improve their anxiety level. As most elderly are already anxious because their family can’t visit them, they often suffer from anxiety or depression.
Social support groups such as charities, health care organizations from other institutions, and community organizers play an important role for enhancing a protective effect of social support on health in older adults. This process aims to empower the emotions and mental capacities of older adults as they engage in interactive activities that seek to improve their productive campaign to improve their rapport. Trust and cooperation is important to every older adult because they are still productive human beings who are still able to accomplish their activities of daily living. Social support groups can provide different programmable measures so that the protective effect of social support of older adult’s health becomes productive. Cooperating with social support groups indicates that the extent of social support becomes productive. Programs such as birthday celebration, wedding anniversaries, and blessing parties play an important event for older adults because it enhances their interactive communication capacity to improve their rapport according to Bozzo & Guarnarnaccia (2010).
Part III: Conclusion
It has been concluded that the protective effect of social support on health in older adults improves their security issues that develops their emotional and cognitive well-being while under observation and monitoring. Pertaining with the physiological wellness of older adults, it has been identified that their social support is affected by their body’s degenerative health-related processes. Older adults are noticeably sensitive for the reason that they have been thinking about their current situation wherein they thought that they are no longer productive. Overanalyzing their sense of worth is one of the main causes of their anxiety breakdown. Role isolation is one key factor that impacts their cognitive and emotional integrity, which implicates an emotional outburst with their psychological integrity. This is the reason that older adults need an immediate protective social support system that impacts physiological, emotional, and cognitive health.
As an educative management in this issue, the most important is all about assessment because it seeks to validate the present problems confronted from the older adult’s health issues. This involves identifying the problematic facts from the physical assessment and mental assessment status that reveals the total problem affecting their health. Problem identification will help the social support group as well as with the health care personnel to immediately formulate a goal outcome response that will improve the older adult’s social support system and health rehabilitation. Protective effect needs monitoring system so that the social support measures are applied consistently. Support system enhances the credibility to ensure that the health in older adults becomes proactive and productive in the long run. Reviewing the progress notes with regards to the outcomes for the older adult’s protective social support application and management will help future management to determine strengths of the procedures for other older adults as mentioned by Boen, et al, (2012).
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