Gerontology Interview and Home Safety Analysis Report

This assignment presents a comprehensive analysis of a gerontology interview conducted with a 71-year-old senior. The student provides a detailed occupational profile, encompassing roles, personal attributes, physical and social contexts, habits, routines, and cultural aspects. The assignment then delves into the interviewee's behaviors and attributes contributing to healthy aging and longevity, as well as changes in physical activity over time. The student analyzes detrimental habits, aspects of aging affecting the individual, and offers advice. Furthermore, the assignment assesses the balance between occupation and health, and performs a home safety screen with recommendations for exterior entrances, living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and stairs. The analysis incorporates relevant references to support the findings and recommendations. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of gerontological principles and the practical application of safety assessments.

Assignment on Gerontology
Assignment on Gerontology
Name of the student
Roll number
Date of submission

Assignment on Gerontology
Question 1. Provide a thorough occupational profile on the person you are interviewing. You
must include information on habits, routines, roles and rituals as well as information on context
including personal, cultural, physical and social. Please use headings for each of these eight areas
when reporting.
Answer- The person Mr. Jack Hilfiger is a 71 year old senior man living with his wife.
Roles -He is retired lawyer who was working with a law firm. He is well to and lives in a double
storey house made in 1971. He is married and father of two.
Personal- He is type 2 diabetic and his wife is also type 2 diabetic along with mild arthritis.
Physical- He also has calcium deficiency and takes medicines as per prescription. He is slightly
bent and walks slowly.
Habits -He is a social person, everyday in the evening he takes 30 minutes walk in his locality
with his old friend Harry. He is a vegetarian and likes to drink occasionally.
Social -He loves to dance and enjoys parties when ever gets a chance to attend, with his wife. His
routines are very strictly followed and his wife keeps the track.
Routines -He has to eat after every 40 minutes and keep himself hydrated. He is diabetic so food
is prepared accordingly. He likes to take green tea early morning after waking up.
Cultural- He is a Christian and goes to church every Sunday. On weekends his children comes to
see him and his wife. They enjoy the day by cooking or playing indoor games like chess,
foosball.

Assignment on Gerontology
Question 2. Analyze your interview responses and discuss the positive behaviors and attributes
this person has which contribute to healthy aging and longevity.
Answer 2. He likes to make decision instantly. He does not likes to sit at home doing nothing so,
he helps his wife in kitchen chores. He tends to forget things and confuse easily. He is less
emotional. He is happy man who will not mind bad days or situations. He smiles a lot and talks
good things instead of lamenting on past (Cusack, 2018).
Question 3. How have their physical activities changed over the years? What physical,
psychological, social/societal influences precipitated any changes in activity? If they haven’t
changed what would you theorize has contributed to this stability?
Answer 3. As he is very old he likes to walk daily and help his wife in daily house chores. He
likes to dance in the local bar with his friends to keep his joints active. When he was young he
used to be very sportive but as he got into work in his 30s, 40s and 50’s his activity decreased.
He used to spend his days attending client meeting, sitting on chair for hours and hardly went to
walk or to gym (King, 2018). He was not conscious about his diet and generally skipped meals
or ate out. For now he is very conscious towards his diet, daily routine and also for other general
stuffs. The challenges that are associated with aging are that he is not able to walk and do
activities fast as a normal young person may do.
Question 4. Analyze your interview responses and discuss the behaviors they exhibit or
exhibited earlier in their life which may be/may have been detrimental to healthy aging.

Assignment on Gerontology
Answer 4. He used to drink a lot but now he has limited his drinking habits to occasions only.
Earlier due to excessive drinking he use to loose consciousness. Earlier he hardly did any
exercise which has caused his bones depletion.
Question 5. Analyze your interview responses and discuss the aspects of aging that are affecting
them day to day such as biological changes, cognitive changes, mobility restrictions, nutritional
concerns, etc. What advice would you give to this person?
Answer 5. He is growing old so his hairs are becoming white, his eye sight is week now and he
wears a glass. He can’t remember thinks easily. He is not easily able to reason out and
sometimes asks same questions several times. He is weak in running and takes support to bend or
getting up. His body is slightly bent. He has mobility problem and walks slowly. His diet is
updated time to time by the diabetes doctor (Bengtson, Alley, & Putney, N.2017). He has to take
medicine for calcium and diabetes. I would suggest him to be active and do more exercises for
bones. He should rest for 8 hours continuously at night. Should avoid dangerous works and visit
doctors on monthly basis.
Question 6. Considering their lifestyle and responses, do you think this senior balances areas of
occupation with achievement of health and wellness? If so, why? If not, why not and what would
you recommend to improve a better balance?
Answer 6. A person at this age will have very few works to do. He still finds a lot for himself in
whole day. He tries to be mobile and eats as per the requirement. His habits are healthy and
much controlled like less drinking, no smoking, reading, walking eating vegetarian diet without
sugar (Koenig, Peteet, & Balboni, 2017). Living a socially happy life with wife and friends.

Assignment on Gerontology
Question 7. Using one of the screening tools recommended in class or in canvas, perform a
home safety screen on your senior with a list of 5-10 recommendations. You only need to focus
on:
a. exterior entrances- Yes the entrance is brightly lit. The drive ways towards garage is
not lit properly that should be done. The walk surface and steps are safely built. The
door entrance is at good height no needs to change (Agis, 2020). There is a see
through glass missing on the door for first hand view for the visitor’s entry. The
entrance doesn’t have safety grills.
b. living room- The house is very well lit and have no problem with power back up.
The furniture is more than enough and that needs to be reduced. The house is not
nicely ventilated that shall be done by building a window. The doors are wide enough
for the wheelchair. There is very less uncluttered pathway (Newman, 2020). The TV
is old fashioned and have to be operated with remote.
c. Kitchen- Kitchen has some cracked wiring on the wall. They don’t unplug the
appliance from the main switch when not in use. The area beneath the sink is poorly
lit. The fridge is very old and needs repair time to time better it be replaced
(Glendenning, 2018). Some of the cabinet knobs are not present and it needs hard pull
to open.
d. Bathroom- There is no bench or handle near the shower. There is no bath mat. The
toilet is next to bathroom and its easy to shift. The shampoo and soap are not close to

Assignment on Gerontology
towel keeper area. The hot water pipes are not covered properly. There is no medicine
kept in the bathroom.
e. Bedroom – The bed is at a good height that makes his wife to get up down little
difficult. The closet is close to entrance that can hurt at times when entering. There is
no handle or walking aid near the bed. The flash light is not working. They don’t use
electric mattress so its safe. The heater is in the room is little lower that should be
uninstalled and adjusted.
f. stairs (if applicable)- The staircase doesn’t have handle and that should be built
immediately. The step edge should be clearly marked (Peace, 2017). The stair case is
properly lit and is close to exit entrance. There is one more stair case inside the living
room that is quite narrow. The staircase is clustered at its basement and things keep
disturbing while entering. It should be de-clustered.
Finally, I would suggest he is a well disciplined person and maintains healthy life. He likes to do
things which are not dangerous. He is social, active and lively. He maintains a strict diet that
keeps himself healthy.

Assignment on Gerontology
Reference
Agis (2020). Home Safety and Security Checklist | AGIS. [online] Agis.com. Available at:
http://www.agis.com/Document/13/home-safety-and-security-checklist.aspx [Accessed 6
Feb. 2020].
Bengtson, V. L., Alley, D. E., & Putney, N. M. (2017). Social Gerontology as Public Sociology
in Action. In Public Sociology (pp. 95-117). Routledge.
Cusack, S. (2018). Critical educational gerontology and the imperative to empower. In Teaching
and learning in later life (pp. 61-75). Routledge.
Glendenning, F. (Ed.). (2018). Educational gerontology: International perspectives. Routledge.
King, A. I., Boyd, M. L., Dagley, L., & Raphael, D. L. (2018). Implementation of a gerontology
nurse specialist role in primary health care: health professional and older adult
perspectives. Journal of clinical Nursing, 27(3-4), 807-818.

Assignment on Gerontology
Koenig, H. G., Peteet, J. R., & Balboni, M. (2017). Religion and spirituality in
gerontology. Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to
Practice, 109.
Newman, A. B. (2020). James Edgar Paullin: Pioneer in Geriatrics and Gerontology.
Peace, S. (2017). 24 On the interdisciplinary challenge of geographical
gerontology. Geographical Gerontology: Perspectives, Concepts, Approaches, 24.