Healthcare: Physical and Mental Treatment for Older Adults

Running head: HEALTHCARE
HEALTHCARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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HEALTHCARE
Discussion 1:
There is a huge growing population of older patients in the United States suffering from
chronic diseases who needs serious treatment both physically and mentally. Though there are
more than enough differences noted in the physical assessment of a middle aged and an older
adult, most significant is the physical appearance characterized by skin wrinkles, dark patches on
some areas of the skin, persistent skin diseases, dark spots and other skin issues. The most
prevalent being the winkles on the skin implying the age of a person. Other physical features
includes unable to walk at a high pace, illness, dizziness and others. Skin diseases can be the
result of the physical activity they were involved in. The older adults lack the knowledge of skin
treatments, maintenance or precautions needed for their skin like a middle aged person do. They
even lack the energy and willingness to do the same as a result of which they often develop skin
diseases and wrinkles. Wrinkles are inevitable in the aging process but they can be reduced to a
certain extent by taking extra care to the skin and maintaining a healthy diet and being involved
in physical activity. Most of the older adults are not involved in tedious physical work that
eventually increases the probability of chronic diseases due to physical inactivity (Lee & Ory,
2013). Since regular physical activity helps to improve both the physical and mental activity as
well as prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases like heart diseases, obesity, cognitive
impairments, metabolic diseases, osteoporosis and muscular weaknesses, older adults must be
kept informed about the benefits of physical activity and ensure that they meet the minimum
physical activity required to maintain health (McPhee et al., 2016). The healthcare professionals
should observe and educate them about the opportunities and ways to take care of their health.
They should be able to treat them using holistic approach. The healthcare professionals should be
able to assist the older patients the care and give them an opportunity to talk about their feelings

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HEALTHCARE
and share everything that made them depressed. They should be provided with the mental and
spiritual needs beside medication that will promote their health resulting into an increased health
outcome.
Discussion 2:
A comprehensive preoperative assessment of the older adults requires expanding beyond
disease-based or organ based assessments. The key areas assessed prior to surgery especially in
the older adults include use of multiple medications, risk of malnutrition, cognitive impairment,
co morbidities, functional status and frailty. It is mandatory for the surgeons to know the number
of medications and what specific drugs are being used by the elderly patients before surgery.
Accessing the health information prior to surgery helps avoiding complications after and in the
course of the surgery. There are some screenings done before surgery like the preoperative tests
including pulmonary function, chest radiograph, electrocardiogram, non-invasive stress, white
blood count, serum glucose, urinalysis, coagulation, platelet count tests and electrolyte tests o
ensure the overall health of the patients and the surgery is done based on those evaluations
(Kumar C, 2019). If any complications are found during in the assessment, immediate should be
communicated to surgical teams to allow inpatient interventions that reduces the risk of
preoperative complications and other health issues. Pre operative assessment enables to
determine the overall health of the patient prior to surgery and also ensures that the patient is fit
and capable enough to undergo the surgery. Older adults needs more care and monitoring when it
comes to pre surgery assessments, compared to that of middle aged adults, since they have
impaired activity, cardiac problems and other associated health diseases and they are more
susceptible to side effects due to the use of a combination of drugs (Akhtar, MacFarlane &
Waseem, 2013).