¶ … Loss of Function on the Quality of life and Independence, and Quality of life for the elderly Population
Although living longer comes with a price, having a good social relationship, support system, social relationships, and residing in their own abode is what could give seniors independence, happiness, and quality of life. Before discussing how a given loss of function influences the quality of life and the independence of an aging person, it is crucial to define some concepts. These concepts are the quality of life, independence, and activities of daily living, as they will be used in this discussion. Quality of life has varying meanings for different individuals particularly to the elderly population. Quality of life could mean good pension or income, family and friends, being active, being independent, good and safe living conditions, opportunity to learn latest concepts, developing new things, religion, and social relationships among others. Quality of life could mean basic things such as the ability enjoy a delicious meal, to get out of bed, and watch a much loved program on television (Whitbourne, 2011).
Quality of life entails a personal way of thinking about what life means to an individual, and they are not the same. On the other hand, independence for the elderly population means the capability to live independently, whether in their own home or an assisted living residence. It means that they should be able to carry out activities of daily living on their own. The expression "activities of daily living," insinuates the fundamental tasks of daily life, such as bathing, transferring, eating, dressing, and toileting. When people fail to carry out these activities, they require assistance in order to get by. Although people of all ages might have challenges performing the activities of daily living, occurrence rates are higher for the aging than for the younger population.
Aging is related to continuous deficiencies in function across a number of systems, including cognition, motor control, memory and affect. The conventional view about the losses has been that, functional weakening in aging is inevitable because it is a direct result of the brain machinery deteriorating over time. However, there has been the emergence of an unconventional point-of-view, which goes into details of this conventional idea of age-related functional weakening. This new point-of-view contends that as people grow older, brain plasticity developments with pessimistic results begin to take over brain functioning. A set of four principal factors, namely noisy processing, negative learning, decreased schedules of brain functionality, and declined neuromodulatory control, act together to produce a self-reinforcing downward spiral of declined brain performance in older adults. The downward spiral might start from degraded brain activity because of behavioral change, from a failure in brain function because of aging brain machinery, or more likely because of both. These interconnected factors advance plastic alteration in the brain resulting in age-related performance decline (Whitbourne, 2011). This decline will affect how the individual performs the activities of daily living thereby affecting the quality of life and the independence of the individual. Lack of proper intervention may lead to a downward decline, which may result in death if the problem is persistent.
Loss of memory may affect an elderly person's eating patterns. These individual will often forget eating and may not appreciate why it is important to eat. As time goes by, and the situation deteriorates, these individuals may even forget to swallow food and constantly chew or keep food in the mouth without swallowing. This requires that the elderly person be under strict observation of a family member, a caregiver, or a friend who can give them food to eat and remind them to swallow if he or she forgets. However, more often, the elderly people may be forgotten and this may lead to a condition known as Failure to Thrive (FTT), which is a sudden loss of weight that is difficult to reverse (Loue, 2008). If there is no proper intervention to remedy the situation, this will lead to a downward spiral or even result in death.
Sometimes, loss of memory may not be happening in isolation but a depiction of a different condition. According to Loue (2008), it may be a sign that the elderly person is depressed and determining this is crucial for administration proper intervention. The caregiver should take steps to determine the cause of memory loss and if it is depression, one should obtain a physician's help in reversing the depression. However, if...
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