Challenges of Caring for the Elderly in Today's Society

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CHALLENGES THAT CARING FOR THE ELDERLY POSE IN TODAY’S SOCIETY
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Introduction
Caring for old people is special care that involves dedication and support for old individuals.
There are some who would like to spend the remaining parts of their lives at their own home and
others are taken care of while in the care homes sectors. In Europe and especially United
Kingdom (UK) the aged category of people regarded as elderly begins from 60 years, but it
depends on the biological health status of an individual (Knapp et al, 2018). This is because a
person at 75 years old may be healthier than someone at 60 years. This paper is going to identify
and discuss some of the challenges imposed in society as a result of caring for the elderly. These
challenges are experienced generally from the individuals who are very close to the older person
like the family members, the surroundings relatives, the community and the whole society. Some
of the crucial daily activities for the elderly people which may impact the society include;
housekeeping services, personal care, administering of the medications, mobility support,
cooking meals and companionship (Bähler et al, 2015).
Some of the Main Challenges
Challenges in the Fiscal and Microeconomic stability
There is an expectation that by the year 2050, the more growth in the number of elderly people
will come from the developing States. The increase in the ageing populations will impose a
challenge to the modern society through the increase of the government’s expenditure on the
pension, social benefits programs and on healthcare (Davis and Lastra, 2016). This slows down
the economic growth of a country and the overall government's projects. The effects are
experienced in the government's strategies such as spending on the public investments
programmes from infrastructure and education sectors to other financial activities for the older

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people. In the recent economic crisis drew the attention to the issues of the ageing population and
raised the demand for social protection which has made many countries to face unsound public
debts (Bloom et al, 2015). The high spending in several countries has limited their fiscal
potentials towards the increased ageing-related expenditure. The government expenditure and
programs have been affected by the issue of caring for old people in today’s society whereby
there is an increase in demand by the public to set up care homes for the elderly. For instance,
due to the high demand for care homes in UK, the government had to set aside funds to cater to
the demands of its citizens. The government incurs an added responsibility where it has to
strategize on prompt and pertinent programs to ensure both macroeconomic and fiscal
sustainability and also impose an impact on health and well- being of its citizens in all ages
(Greer, Jarman and Baeten, 2016).
Challenges on the Caregiver, Relative and Family
In caring for the older people, there several persons surrounding him/her who suffer a lot of
consequences which affect them physically, emotionally, and psychologically. In all the societies
caring for older people depends on the families especially on emotional and physical for they are
unable to function independently. The emotional stress is expected to be experienced while
caring for the elder individuals within the family as they witness their relatives suffering. The
family members, relatives and the external caregivers who may be given the duty to take care of
an old person have uneasy time for they deal with several unpredictable day-to-day activities
(Woodman, Baillie and Sivell, 2016). The day to day issues includes unpredictable changes of
the elderly moods which are brought by the high level of dependency and illnesses. In certain
research conducted of the caregivers for the elder people, it is shown that a family member
especially women were more stressful when their husbands who were older than them such that