Today's post is a rundown of aging and the elderly. This post is in a study guide style, and its made as a starting point to help you with your research on aging and the elderly. When I turned 21 I became my grandmothers (adoptive mothers) caregiver, and when I turned 30, I became her full-time caregiver. I was lost, I knew nothing about what I was going to get myself into so I hope this quick guide helps out somewhat.
Let’s start with the stages of grief, and if you're a caregiver it's essential to know this for your own knowledge. Death is unfortunate, but it happens to everyone. It's critical to be open-minded about death and dying as it's been dubbed a negative thing. So, below they are listed:
- Denial
- Anger
- Depression
- Acceptance
Next, is the different senior age groups:
- Young Old/ 65-74
- Middle Old/ 75-84
- Old/ 85+
Gerontology is the scientific study of aging and the elderly.
There are four critical dimensions of gerontology and they are:
- Biology and physiological aging
- Population aging
- Psychological aging
- Social aging
Centenarians are individuals who are over 100 years old
The world’s oldest countries ( in millions)
- China (106.1)
- India ( 59.6)
- United States (38.7)
- Japan (27.5)
- Russia (19.9)
Some more tips on finding information on aging and elderly:
- Check out blogs that are written by those who are caregivers
- There are Facebook groups that have many caregivers in them. I am a member of two groups, and it's comforting to be in a group with people who are experiencing life the same way you are. Just type in “caregivers” or “sandwich generation” in the top search bar on Facebook, then choose the group's tab, and there are hundreds of different groups to join.
- Research on YouTube, there are many content creators on YouTube that are informative, and its a great value to learn a new thing every day.