Aging And Elderly

Aging and Elderly

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Aging and Elderly

Aging can be described as a process of getting older. Age stratification term is used to describe the hierarchical ranking of people based on their age. However, in sociology age stratification refers to the inequalities that are linked with the age. There is a stigma associated with age as people think that older people are less productive and are unable to take part in the progress of the country. Specifically, discussing about the US, due to an increase in rate of life expectancy, population aged 60 or over between the years 2006 to 2016 has increased by up to 36%. Additionally, one in every seven people of the population is an older American, which is nearly 15.2% of the total population (Wall & Duffy, 2010). However, with age, the immunity system of a person weakens, and thus, older people are more vulnerable and prone to develop various health issues.

In sociology, there are three main theories of aging that are disengagement theory, according to which an individual tends to isolate himself or herself from prior social interactions due to age. In contrast, the other type of aging theory is activity theory, in which successful aging occurs when older people stay more active and interact with others. While the third theory of aging is social clock according to which everything in our life occurs according to a certain timetable that is determined by social structure and culture. The video "Alive Inside Legendado" it was shown that many older people isolate themselves from others as they think that they are a burden on other people or are less productive and cannot play a vital role in the progress of society ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ryDvQ2CV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}Alive Inside Legendado}, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Alive Inside Legendado, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":190,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sbFMNDWM/items/SRQ9RXL9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sbFMNDWM/items/SRQ9RXL9"],"itemData":{"id":190,"type":"motion_picture","title":"Alive Inside Legendado","source":"YouTube","dimensions":"1:17:50","URL":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7GF7_xyeH8","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Alive Inside Legendado, n.d.). It has been observed that age also affects the cognitive abilities of an individual, and most of the older people have a chronic illness as well due to which they require intense care to cope up with the illness. In the video as well, it was highlighted that many older people are suffering from various mental illnesses, and in many cases, the reason for depression is loneliness.

The focus of the video was to spread awareness regarding music therapy. Owing to the advantages of music therapy, it is often informally used in residential care units for older people to enhance interaction while also improving behavioral, emotional, cognitive skills. Research has shown that music therapy facilitates a lot in improving the cognitive skills of elderly people. The research conducted by the author Wall and his fellow researchers also highlighted that music therapy greatly impacted the behavior of elderly people, especially the older people that have dementia in a positive way as music facilitates in reducing the level of agitation (Wall & Duffy, 2010). This is because music stimulates certain parts of the brain resulting in an increased blood flow that, in turn, will improve elderly people's cognitive skills. In the video as well, Henry a resident of a care unit, never used to interact with others. As explained in the disengagement theory elder people tend to isolate themselves from others due to age, Henry also isolated himself from other people. However, when he started listening to music, he started to interact with other people and told everyone about his childhood and his family. The music therapy helped him in reducing stress and also inspire movement such as clapping and tapping toes.

While discussing the baby boomers, music therapy can also help them as they are the ones that grew up at the time of the post-war government. Also, they were physically fit and were wealthier than the preceding generation. They also had conservative views about aging as they are in denial regarding their age. The music therapy will also help them in loving their life more actively by improving their social and cognitive skills as well. Thus, music therapy should be given to older people so that they can also cope up with the issue they face due to age.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Alive Inside Legendado. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7GF7_xyeH8

Wall, M., & Duffy, A. (2010). The effects of music therapy for older people with dementia. British journal of nursing, 19(2), 108-113.