Social Policy and Ageing Population

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Social policy and ageing population
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SOCIOLOGY
Executive summary
Sociology is a diverse subject, aiming to ensure the wellbeing of the humankind. As a matter
of specification, the discipline comprises of the social work done for upgrading the standards
of living for the people. Here, the main focus is on community development, as they lack the
basic facilities needed for survival. This assignment takes up the issue of ageing population
being a burden on the economy. The demographic trends and their impact on healthcare
costs, housing and immigration gets authentic in terms of the governmental intervention.
Typical examples in this direction are healthcare reforms and policies. The recommendation
of training the junior workforce would be beneficial in terms of respecting the seniority and
experience of the elderly workforce.

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SOCIOLOGY
Table of contents
Social stigma around aging population......................................................................................3
Evaluation of approaches taken by successive government in making provision for the elderly
since 1979...................................................................................................................................5
Impact of ageing population on pensions, healthcare costs, housing and immigration.............7
Recommendations for improving elderly care in UK................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................12

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SOCIOLOGY
Social stigma around aging population
We are living in a youth-motivated culture while our population is getting older.
According to the statistics, the population of UK is getting older with 18% of the population
aged 65 and above and 2.5% of population aged 85 and above (Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 2019).
Often the old and aging population are stigmatised in our society as frail and their disabilities
in the spheres of mobility and psychosomatic disabilities such as dementia and Parkinson’s
are often viewed negatively in a society which is youth-driven.
Moreover, society has a tendency to adopt various generalised thoughts, prejudiced
preconceived notions about a group or a community through portrayal of that respective
community in media, print media, newspapers, magazines and other sources. For instance,
research from The Royal Society of Public Health stated that a quarter of the upcoming
generation of UK assumes that depression and desolation is common in senior citizens,
whereas, 40% of the upcoming generation of UK also believes that there is no way to escape
from dementia or delirium once an individual ages (Ageuk.org.uk 2019).
A report from Institute of Medicine stated that there has been subsequently negative
attitude towards elderly patients in healthcare centres across Europe. Such obnoxious
attitudes towards the aging population of UK has denoted United Kingdom to be the worst
country for senior citizens and aging population.
Analysis of demographic trends concerning aging population.
Demographical data is important to analyse, interpret and formulate certain policies
for a particular sample of demography or the whole. Demography of United Kingdom is
dynamic and changes continuously (according to the socio-economical, socio-political,
geopolitical and other issues in a nation or the world) which subsequently affects the aging
population as well. According to the arguments of Davies and Challis (2018), it can be