week 3 dq 2

The advantages of someone between the ages of 50-70; where they are not yet ready for some type of assisted living but have issues with living on their own. Population wide, some older adults have issues come up (Lamb, 2013).

Positives of a retirement community; peer community, activities which are designed for your activity level, medical assistance and other activities may have community vans, life is designed to assist in bodies which do not work like they did, etc.

Negatives of a retirement community; little if any contact with family. Friends, family, etc. become very reluctant to want to venture into those types of areas. Isolation from former loved ones. Difficulty in being able to connect with all new people who are having a tough time transitioning from being an active person to needing help.

Nursing home or assisted living negatives; most families only come to see “the patient” once or twice a year at most. Christmas, and at times Easter. But family rarely comes around. Depression sets in going from being active and social to being more and more isolated.

Nursing home positives; proper medical care, proper medical support, proper ability to interact with peers in a safer environment.

Living with family positives only a few which include being involved in grandchildren’s lives, positive interactions with family, and meals with family.

Living with family negatives include becoming a live-in babysitter, bad interactions with adult children, and declining interactions with peer group.

My wife is older than I am, several years ago several conversations were performed between her kids and her regarding living situations (Jensen & Arnett, 2012).

All 4 of her kids decided that having mom live with them was not only a bad idea, but they could not think of a positive, minus one.

That one could only think about a handful of positives which in no way could overcome the negatives. Those few and far between positives were; built in childcare for 3 kids, at that time 4 7 9. Shared living expenses. Semi-enjoyment of the company of another adult. 3 adults with 3 kids. Versus 2 adults (tired working full time) with 3 kids.

However personality conflicts soon took the cake and living with “mother in law” became an unacceptable parameter (Saraswathi, 1999).

I am sure for other families the parameters are completely different, I am sure for other families having the adult children and the parents live together is a great thing, while they both deal with the older in this case parent/grandparent (Lewinson, Robinson-Dooley,& Grant, 2012). Although the kids start to produce their own, so the grandparents turn into great grandparents (Russell, Heinlein Storti, & Handy, 2019). Power dynamics change and alter a huge amount in said situations. Which could be a great thing, but then again could be a horror story.

References

Jensen, L. A., & Arnett, J. J. (2012). Going global: New pathways for adolescents and emerging adults in a changing world. Journal of Social Issues, 68(3), 473–492.

Lamb, S. (2013). Personhood, appropriate dependence and rise of eldercare institutions in India. In C. Lynch, & J. Danely, (Eds.), Transitions and transformations: Cultural perspectives on aging and the life course. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.

Lewinson, T., Robinson-Dooley, V., & Grant, K. W. (2012). Exploring “Home” Through Residents’ Lenses: Assisted Living Facility Residents Identify Homelike Characteristics Using Photovoice. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 55(8), 745–756. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1080/01634372.2012.684758

Russell, Allison R ,Heinlein Storti, Melissa A. , & Handy, Femida. (2019). Managing volunteer retirement among older adults: Perspectives of volunteer administrators. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, (1), 95. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.20899/jpna.5.1.95-109

Saraswathi, T. S. (1999). Adult-child continuity in India: Is adolescence a myth or an emerging reality? In T. S. Saraswathi (Ed.), Culture, socialization and human development (pp. 214–232). New Delhi, India: Sage.