The Aging Of America Essay

The Aging of America: Outliving Ourselves

Could you picture yourself being happy living in a nursing home? Or could you see your parents living in a nursing home, knowing or not knowing that they are the complete opposite of content. What if I told you most elders residing in nursing homes are miserable and desperate for a different way of living. There has been an increase of elderly people having to trade a normal life for a life of boredom, depression, neglect, and abuse. Nursing homes should be the best experience for older people due to the fact, that they will never get to live a life again and should make their last years as enjoyable as possible. They deserve to die happy, everybody does.
Due to the overwhelming number of elderly

people we have nowadays due to the “baby boomer” generation, plus the other percentage of the elderly who were born before and/or after that generation. The amount of babies that were born in that generation were a big deal because, after World War 2 the soldiers returned home and were able to reproduce with their significant other that they were unable to see during the war. This lead to many babies being born during that time which has lead to our percentage of our elderly to increase significantly today. With millions of elderly people comes children and grandchildren, by the time they become adults and have their own families and start their own lives, they don’t want to take care of their mentally unstable parents/grandparents. The most beneficial option for them is to send them off to a nursing home but little do they think about the nurse to patient ratio. With more elderly people in the homes, the less patients the nurses will be able to handle and they then start to care very little for each individual patient.
One in five americans from about 72 million people will be categorized as elderly. This exponential increase of retired aging people tends to outweigh the number of caretakers that work in nursing homes and personal home care. Retirement benefits should include having a personal caretaker if needed funded by the government, which is funded by taxpayer money. Personal caretakers will ensure the quality for the patient, the caretaker won’t feel overwhelmed or hurried to move onto the next patient, he or she will only have to worry about one, this will direct all of his or her attention onto one person only. Not only will this ensure quality but it will benefit others by not taking up so much space in nursing homes, this way, those who are not able to afford personal caretakers can move into a home. This will also make the elderly happy, they are able to stay in their home where they have lived all their lives, just with some extra help.
According to The State of Aging and Health in America 2013, they estimate that about 25% of people over the age of 65 have a mental illness.

They face depression, “It has been suggested that the incidence of depression increases with age, fed by fears of disability and death” (Blazer 2015). “Only 50% of patients with depression receive care”( Aakhus 2015). Also Substance abuse, alzheimer's, and many other mental health problems. With all the pills and medicine prescribed to them, they need healthcare, that is where the cost of medicare is anticipated to rise from $550 billion to $903 billion in a time frame of nine years. The healthcare system does this on purpose to ensure sick clients instead of healthy patients. If people were taught better nutrition and personal healthcare at an early age, the general public would try to avoid fast food, lazy habits, detrimental diets, and poor body figure. This in turn would cause healthier elderly people to take care of themselves longer than usually expected. For those who are unable to take care of themselves or have family members who are unable to care for them, they are sent off to nursing homes. The elderly refuse to go majority of the time, they shouldn’t have to dread or fear having to go to a nursing home during their last years, although many miserably accept it

anyways.
Some elderly people who are anxious to be put into a home are worried about how it’s going to be inside the home, they would also be nervous about not knowing anybody in there. This leads them to stress out and possibly raise their blood pressure which could be an issue with they have issues with their blood pressure. Everyone who is contributing to find ways to cure life risking diseases have a good heart and mean all well but when we reach the age where we can no longer function on our own, it can be considered a bit inhumane to lay in bed all day and watch the rest of your life pass by you.
I wouldn’t be too happy if I were forced to have to live into a nursing home, I would feel abandoned by my family and loved ones. I couldn't see my parents living in one either, knowing the treatment they will receive.