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Running head: ASSESSING AND PLANNING CARE FOR AN ELDERLY PERSON

Assessing and Planning Care for an Elderly Person

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Assessing and Planning Care for an Elderly Person
Time is an important factor in human life and always dictates one’s age and ageing. In the United States and across the globe, the population of the elderly population has significantly been expanding over time. The US Census Bureau (2018) indicates that the estimated population of people aged 65 years and above as of 2014 was 47.8 million accounting for 14.9% of the total population in the United States. The projected population growth for those aged 65 years and above by 2060 is 98.1% with 19.7 million of this population is that of people aged 85 years and above. As indicated by the data, the elderly population is significant and healthcare providers ought to understand this population and its needs to provide evidence-based care better. Old age has always been associated with certain changes which affect the overall health and wellbeing of the population (Voytek et al. 2015). An African American man was interviewed, cultural implications described, the comprehensive functional assessment performed, compared and contracted age-related changes, preliminary issues identified, and possible alterations to care that would help improve the health of the interviewee provided.

An important cultural implication is the eating habits and beliefs of African Americans.

Rashid et al. (2018) indicate that food choices are primarily determined by an individual or community’s cultural beliefs and practices. African Americans have a certain preference for a cuisine called soul food which according to Oney et al. (2015) is typically made up of fried foods and lots of fatty meat prepared with rich gravies. CF notes that he has always preferred tasty and fatty foods as he believes these enhance his energy levels and keep him young. Eating habits of the African Americans is an important cultural implication that influences the health and wellbeing of a patient from childhood, through adulthood, to elderly stages. Africans speak

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The home environment is a major source of threats to fall and assessing it has the potential of not only understanding the patient’s environment but also initiating a plan to mitigate the threats. The Home Safety Assessment Tool was applied to evaluate the safety of CF’s home.

Preliminary Issues
An important preliminary issue assessed was a pain in older adults. As people age, they tend to develop complications that are characterized by multiple pain episodes. In managing these conditions, it is always important for healthcare providers to identify and understand the pain related to these conditions. Most people will deny having any pain when they want to be perceived as being healthy and capable of undertaking their tasks. For one to clearly understand the patient’s health status, pain assessment is of great importance. A second issue is CF’s spirituality and its impact on health. According to Asare and Danquah (2017), African Americans are spiritual and always believe in divine power for healing as an aspect that has been associated with poor health outcomes.

CF’s dietary practices is an important issue of consideration when assessing the physical health of the patient. African Americans rely heavily on their traditional diets which according to Rashid et al. (2018) increases their risk to poor health outcomes including the facilitation of early onset of age-related changes. Equally, it was essential to asses CF’s physical fitness and environmental state. Older adults are at increased risk of falls and assessing these issues helps to understand the underlying risk. Assessing CF’s coping abilities was another important area of concern. Based on the interview, it was evident that CF has diabetes and a history of
hypertension which requires that he engage in lifestyle changes.

References
Asare, M., & Danquah, S. A. (2017). The African Belief System and the Patient’s Choice of Treatment from Existing Health Models: The Case of Ghana. Act a Psychopathol, 3(4), 49.

Curcio, F., Basile, C., Liguori, I., Della-Morte, D., Gargiulo, G., Galizia, G., ... & Abete, P.

Rashid, V., Engberink, M. F., van Eijsden, M., Nicolaou, M., Dekker, L. H., Verhoeff, A. P., & Weijs, P. J. (2018). Ethnicity and socioeconomic status are related to dietary patterns at age 5 in the Amsterdam born children and their development (ABCD) cohort. BMC public health, 18(1), 115.

US Census Bureau (2018). Facts for Features: Older Americans month: May 2017. Retrieved from Voytek, B., Kramer, M. A., Case, J., Lepage, K. Q., Tempesta, Z. R., Knight, R. T., & Gazzaley, A. (2015). Age-related changes in 1/f neural electrophysiological noise. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(38), 13257-13265.

He, however, indicates that healthy eating habits also influence the health and life of an individual as unhealthy diets result in the development of diseases that cause early deaths.

2. Thoughts about when a person is considered “too old.”
An individual is considered too old when he cannot perform basic personal tasks including dressing, walking, and toileting among other activities. According to him, this aspect is determined by an individual’s age and other factors such as chronic illnesses.

6. Something special that helped the person live so long
CF indicates that Nigerian meals are healthy and are directly associated with long lives. Eating healthy foods is an aspect that CF associated with better health and long lives. He states that members of his family reach up to 89 years before dying an aspect that CF associates with his long life.

7. The lifespan of other family members
CF states that his grandfather died at the age of 91 while his grandmother died at 94. His father and mother both died at 88 and 89consecutively.

10. Patient’s description of current and past health status
CF states that he has been healthy for most of his life, but four years ago, he was diagnosed with type II diabetes and a year after he was diagnosed with hypertension.

11. The values that guided life so far
Religion, according to CF is an important aspect of family that provides values that guide his life.

3. Spirituality and the related impact on health
CF believes that his spirituality has been a major factor that has helped him through his life. According to him, spirituality gives one hope in life. He believes that in all cases of illness, God

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Turn 360 Degrees
Discontinuous steps = 0

Marked deviation = 0
Mild deviation or uses walking

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Appendix D: Assessment of Home Safety

Appendix E: Barthel Index

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