COMMUNITY CARE OF THE ELDERLY - Essay Example

Insufficient basic care for the elderly, and the strains and anxieties of their care-givers are important issues in society. This topic is very relevant in societies all over the world today, where globalization and new technology find their way to. Due to scientific advancement in all fields, including medicine, the life expectancy of humans rises steadily, and the greying population is predicted to grow in proportion over the next few decades. It becomes imperative that problems which are unique to the aging and elderly should be dealt with, so that quality of life can be improved for the infirm and old, and also for their care-givers.

This is reiterated by Belle, S.E; Rogers, M.(1999) who state that the ageing of the population presents both fiscal and health challenges; therefore it is incumbent upon our global society to create an environment that enables older adults to develop and maintain healthy life-styles and behaviours. THE EAST END OF GLASGOW: Ineichen (1993) states that Glasgow – described by a parliamentary committee in 1840 as a place where “penury, dirt, misery, drunkenness and crime culminate to a pitch unparalleled in Great Britain”- was probably the dirtiest and unhealthiest of all British cities.

Fever was prevalent, and the population density was excessive. Because of squalor and overcrowding, diseases like malaria and typhus were not unknown. The buildings were crowded together, and the drainage system was poor. 1According to the BBC News aired on 4 August, 2002 9:25 U.K. the flood caused by rains and poorly functional sewers in the east end of Glasgow, resulted in hundreds of people losing their homes and hundreds being forced to spend the night in emergency accommodation. The aging sewer system of the east end of Glasgow had to be replaced in order to avoid similar national emergency situations from arising in the future.

ELDERLY PEOPLE IN THE EAST END OF GLASGOW: An empirical study of old people in