Written Care Study Project

This project examines health, active ageing, and theories of ageing through a case study of Rosa Antonio, an 83-year-old Alzheimer's patient. It explores health promotion strategies and the importance of person-centred assessment in providing care for elderly individuals with cognitive decline.

WRITTEN CARE
STUDY PROJECT AND
BROCHURE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Health.....................................................................................................................................3
Active Ageing.........................................................................................................................3
Concept of Ageing..................................................................................................................3
Theories of Ageing.................................................................................................................4
Health Promotion....................................................................................................................5
Person Centred Assessment....................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Health is a crucial element of human being and requires continuous maintenance in order
to live a quality life (Health, 2018). This assignment will enlighten different concepts and
theories of ageing. It will also include health promotion and its importance. In addition to this,
person centred assessment will be covered related to case study.
MAIN BODY
Health
According to World Health Organisation, health is defined as a state of compete physical,
mental and social well being, not just the absence of any type of disease or infirmity. With good
and sound health, person can live quality life and can enjoy every moment of it (Health, 2018).
There are numerous factors which can influence health of a particular person, such as income
and social status, education and literacy, health care services, personal health practices, biology
and genetic, physical environment, person's individual characteristics and behaviours, gender,
ageing, etc (Deary and et al, 2012).
Active Ageing
It is referred to the maintenance of good physical, social and mental health and having
continuous involvement with family, peer groups, friends and community throughout the process
of ageing (Active Ageing, 2018). According to World Health Organisation, active ageing is the
process of optimizing the opportunities for health, participation and security to enhance quality
of life at the time of ageing. Cognition, well being and health are major elements of active
ageing.
Concept of Ageing
Ageing is defined as the process of becoming older. This process includes structural and
functional changes and alterations that occurs due to ageing. Whereas, successful ageing refers to
physical, mental and social well being in older age (What is successful ageing and who should
define it? 2018). In today's era, successful ageing has become very tough task to achieve for old-
age people due to change in lifestyle, patterns of illness in old age, disability and health risks,
etc.

Theories of Ageing.
Programmed Theories of Ageing: This theory states that ageing is a natural and
essential process of the biology of humans and is programmed in human bodies. If ageing is not
present, than human being will live forever young (Avery and et al, 2014). There are three main
systems that ate connected with ageing process and they ate endocrine, immune system and
genes (Programmed Theories of Ageing, 2018.). Alterations and modification in these systems
leads to ageing of a human being. It is further categorised in other theories and are mentioned
below:
 Programmed Longevity: Human body is made up of different cells such as somatic
cells which are other than the reproductive cells. Somatic cells have fixed capacity to
divide in a lifetime and after reaching some extent, they no longer replicate. This non
replication leads to death of a person, which is also known as apoptosis (Gilleard and
Higgs, 2014). This theory states that, there is an impairment in the ability of somatic
cells to continue replication, which results in sequential switching on and off of certain
genes and also shortening of the telomeres. Growing old or senescence comes when age
associated functional deficits become manifested.
 Immunological theory: Immune systems is made up of different cells, tissues and
organs which are connected together in a network and functions together in order to
protect the body against foreign injuries, viruses, and infections. As a person ages, the
immune system become slower and the capacity to fight with external bodies (germs,
virus, infection, diseases) of the system degrades (The Basics of the Immunological
Theory of Ageing, 2018). Due to this, human body become more vulnerable to heath
problems, and eventual death. The reduced functionality of immune especially in the
areas of thymus and bone marrow leads to ageing. Pneumonia, urinary tract infections
(UTI), postoperative infections ageing, diabetes, cellulitis, etc., are common problems in
elder people. These problems are the consequences of decreased capacity of T – cell,
which is majorly responsible for cell mediated immunity (Tesch-Roemer, 2012). This
theory believes that a healthy diet and lifestyle coupled with preventive health measures
can support functioning of immune systems and can help prevent ageing and untimely
deaths in elder people.

The damage or error theory: The idea behind damage based theory of ageing is that,
slow building up of damage can lead to failure of critical organs of body like heart, kidney, or the
whole body (Damage-Based Theories of Ageing, 2014). It includes some theories which are
mentioned below:
 Wear and Tear theory: This theory asserts that the effect of ageing are generally caused
by progressive damage of cells and body organs over a period of time (Arai and et al,
2015). Human body “wear out” due to use and once they are used, they cannot function
properly (The Wear and Tear Theory of Ageing, 2018). This theory presumes human
body as mechanical system which break down with use over years.
Health Promotion
From the case study, Rosa Antonio is a patient of Alzheimer and is 83 year old living in
nursing home. She was diagnosed with this disease two years ago. She knows English and Italian
fluently but due to Alzheimer, she speaks differently when she means something else. Her
mental functionality is decreasing as she cannot remind familiar faces and their conversation. I
am a registered nurse, which is taking care of Rosa to handle and fight with her disease. In order
to increase the quality of her life, I encourage her to meet their family people on daily basis and
participate in conversation and interaction. This will maximise the chances to remember her
family members and can lead to normal functioning and disorientation of mind to some extent.
With the help of health promotion programs (Salazar, Crosby and DiClemente, 2015), as a care
taker, I can inspire and encourage Rosa to live a healthy and disease free life. Health promotion
are behavioural social science that draws from the biological, environmental, psychological,
physical and medical sciences to promote health and prohibit disease, disability and premature
death. In order to promote this, health promotion programmes are organised in which patients
like Rosa can participate in behaviour change activities, etc.
Health promotion programmes is the development of patients by improving their
knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour (Eldredge And et al, 2016). The main aim is to pose
positive influence on the health behaviour as well as on living condition of individual. By
indulging Rosa in health promotion activities can result better and healthy life.
Person Centred Assessment
Person centred assessment is referred to a process, directed by the family in order to
identify individuals strengths, capacities, preferences, needs and desired outcomes. It is basically

a tool to elicit informations related to patient (Brooker and Latham, 2015). As a nurse, this
assessment helps me to get all the necessary information related to patients, whether it is patients
biological history or social history. It includes individual's background, current age, health status,
current living conditions, marital status, etc (Martin and Félix‐Bortolotti, 2014).
As a nurse of Rosa, above elements can be used to know about Rosa in detail, like, her
age is 83 and is living in a nursing home. She is a widow with 4 children and 12 grand children.
She was born in Italy and move to Australia with family, when she was 15 years old. She speaks
two languages very fluently and they are English and Italian. Above were the description of
social background of Rosa Antonio.
She was diagnosed with Alzheimer two years ago, which is referred to memory loss and
improper mental functionality. In this patients start loosing their memories and unable to perform
normal functions due to mental impairment. Rosa sometimes did not recognise her family
members and unable to hold conversation with more than one people. Sometime, she speaks in
Italian when she wants to speak in English. Above were the biological background assessment of
Rosa.
She sometime did not recognise her care takers so it become difficult for me to
communicate or interact with her. In order to interact with Rosa, I have to keep patience and use
different communication methods. For initiating better communication, I can approach her
directly and establish a good eye contact with her. By showing respect, I can initiate a good
conversation with her.
There are many stereotypes and ageist attitudes against elderly people suffering from
mental disorders. People perceives ill old people differently and according to that their behaviour
changes. Old age people face disrespect and listens to negative comments from young people.
Ageism serves as a social border divider between young and old. These stereotypes prevent old
people to participate in in social, political, spiritual and other activities. These stereotypes can be
broken by changing attitudes about ill elderly people.
PART 2

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that, ageing is a natural process and is majorly
the result of decreased functioning of cells and human systems. As from the case study, Rosa
Antonio is a patient of Alzheimer and living in nursing home. Old people have to face negative
comments due to their health condition by young generation which can be broken down with the
help of change in attitude and perception.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Martin, C.M. and Félix‐Bortolotti, M., 2014. Person‐centred health care: a critical assessment of
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Arai, Y. and et al, 2015. Inflammation, but not telomere length, predicts successful ageing at
extreme old age: a longitudinal study of semi-supercentenarians. EbioMedicine. 2(10).
pp. 1549-1558.
Deary, I.J. and et al, 2012. Genetic contributions to stability and change in intelligence from
childhood to old age. Nature. 482(7384). p. 212.
Tesch-Roemer, C., 2012. Active ageing and quality of life in old age. UN.
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