Wellbeing in Society: Older People, Issues, and Strategic Initiatives

This report delves into the multifaceted aspects of wellbeing concerning older individuals within society. It begins by defining wellbeing and identifying key concepts such as physical, mental, and social wellbeing, highlighting their significance in determining the overall happiness and life satisfaction of older people. The main body of the report then examines the primary issues impacting the wellbeing of this demographic, including health decline, loneliness, loss of independence, and societal fears. Furthermore, it presents several strategic initiatives designed to enhance the wellbeing of older people, encompassing exercise, meditation, support groups, and continuous learning. The report underscores the importance of addressing these issues and implementing these initiatives to improve the quality of life for older adults.

Wellbeing in Society

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Two Concepts that Relate to Wellbeing of Older People in the Society.....................................3
Primary Issues and Problems Relating to the Wellbeing of Older People in Society.................4
Strategic Initiatives That Enhance the Wellbeing of Elder People in the Society.......................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Wellbeing is concerned with the experience of an individual regarding their happiness,
health and prosperity in all aspects of life. Wellbeing comprises of various internal and external
factors such as having good physical and mental health, satisfaction with life and career, ability
to deal with hardships and stress, having great social life, friends, possessing a sense of purpose
etc. Though, wellbeing is something that is sought after by each individual who lives,
unfortunately in the digital age the levels of wellbeing amongst the society’s members continues
to decline (Rodger, Callaghan and Thomson, 2018). This especially true for the older people of
the society whose wellbeing needs and requirements are consistently being neglected by others.
This report evaluates the wellbeing of older people in the society, main issues hampering
wellbeing of older people and the strategic initiatives that can be taken to solve this dilemma.
MAIN BODY
Two Concepts that Relate to Wellbeing of Older People in the Society
Though there are numerous factors and concepts of wellbeing, achievement of all of
which have proven to be essential in maintaining the overall wellbeing and happiness of the
older people in the society, this report chooses the concepts of social and physical & mental
wellbeing of older people as these play the greatest part in determining the elder people’s overall
wellbeing and happiness.
Physical & Mental Wellbeing: The physical health and safety of the older people is one of the
primary factors that determine their overall happiness and wellbeing in the society. As human
age with time, their body’s ability to selfheal from various injuries, scratches and bruises
declines accordingly. This results in an increase in the number and severity of the physical issues
that individuals face as they get older. It is evident that an older person suffering from major
physical diseases, injuries cannot feel much happy about their condition and this has an immense
impact on their overall wellbeing. As people get older with time, their body’s ability to fend off
diseases and viruses also declines rapidly (Meads and Lees, 2019). This also results in older
people suffering from various severe diseases which they have to get external treatment for from
healthcare professionals. These treatments require the older patients to ingest multiple

combinations of drugs and undergo numerous therapies, which also affects their overall
wellbeing.
Similarly, the mental health of older people is also immensely crucial to maintaining their
overall wellbeing as the mind has to be in a peaceful and contempt state for older people to be
happy and satisfied. As with age people get older, they can no longer enjoy the liberties, vices
and freedoms that they might have when they were younger. This also has an immense impact on
their mental happiness affecting their overall wellbeing. Older people suffering from injuries and
diseases are often recommended by healthcare professionals to take bed rest and not to exert
themselves for their physical recovery (Forsman and et.al., 2018). This too affects older people
quite a bit as everyone longs to stretch their legs and go out for a walk, which they now have
been suddenly advised against. This makes them depressed and unhappy and greatly affects their
mental stability and happiness. It is immensely important for older people to be both physically
and mentally healthy, happy if people and society wants to take care of their overall wellbeing.
Social Wellbeing: Social wellbeing is also immensely significant in determining the overall
happiness and wellbeing of an older person in the society. Social wellbeing relates to the need
for humans to have a positive and engaging social circle, consisting of friends, family, relatives,
peers etc. As people age with time, it is natural to observe their social circle decrease in
proportion as they no longer have the energy or the ability to consistently be a part of a larger
social group amongst friends. This has a major impact on their overall wellbeing as if older
people do not have a sufficiently friendly family to depend upon, the become totally alone and
start to crave the vibrant social circle they used to possess in their youth (Johnstone and et.al.,
2019). Though loss of friends and reduction of social circle has always been the case of older
people since the dawn of time, in the digital age, as families becomes smaller and priorities in
relation to taking care of older people have changed in the other generations, older people have
very less people to take comfort in and rely upon. This has an immensely negative impact on
their happiness and life satisfaction and majorly affects their overall wellbeing in the society.
Primary Issues and Problems Relating to the Wellbeing of Older People in Society
There are numerous problems and issues, all of which contribute towards negatively
impacting the overall wellbeing of older people in the society. These issues are as follows:

Health: One of the primary issues that ends up decreasing the wellbeing of an older person in the
society is the decline in their physical and mental health with age. As it is normal for a human
being to absorb physical damage and injuries throughout their life, all the damages and injuries
people get in their youth days tend to surface up in their older age resulting in various intensity
of aches and pains all over the body. It is immensely hard for normal people to adopt a healthier
lifestyle and as people grow older all the effects of their unhealthy diets, vices also surface in
their older age with the older people also consistently suffering from various diseases and
infections. These put enormous strain on the physical health of older people which negatively
affects their overall wellbeing (Gopinath and et.al., 2017). Older people suffering from physical
health issues also become unhappy and distressed due to the pain and stress their physical
ailments out on their mind. Physical disabilities that result in older people make them
increasingly dependent on other people for help which also affects their mental health. This also
negatively affects their mental health and has become one of the primary issues and problem in
relation to the overall wellbeing of older people in the society.
Loneliness: In the digital age, it has been scientifically proven by various researchers that human
beings crave companionship and friendship. This is even more true for older people of the
society who increasingly depend on others for their day to day activities. But it is also proven by
researchers that family bonds of today are not as strong as they used to be with increasing
number of families choosing to live separately than with their elders. This also is a very major
problem that negatively affects the happiness and wellbeing foe older people in the society. With
age as their partners die or have become too sick, older people feel increasing alone with no
friends and family to depend upon (Rosenfeld and et.al., 2018). If unfortunately, the individual
doesn’t have many people they can take comfort in and rely upon, it immensely impacts their
social and mental health and adversely affects their wellbeing.
Independence: With age older people have to let go of the liberties and independence that they
used to enjoy and take for granted in the days of their youth. This also is a very big issue as
people find it quite hard to constantly depend and rely on other, even if they have a loving family
or great friends who provide them with as much support as they can. Older people who have a
habit of doing everything by themselves and abhor asking others for help are affected by this
problem which decreases their overall wellbeing.

Fear: There is also the societal fear that older people face whenever they leave the safety of their
house or in the digital world even inside the safety of their house. It has also been scientifically
proven that older people are the easiest targets for criminals as they pretty much cannot defend
themselves against any kind of crime of abuse at the hand of criminals and strangers. This makes
older people fear for their personal safety every time they have to leave the house and also fear
for robbers and criminals braking into the house and causing harm to them (Barrie and et.al.,
2019). As their fears are not unjustified due to the constant increase in the crime rates, this fear
has an immensely negative impact on their overall wellbeing.
Strategic Initiatives That Enhance the Wellbeing of Elder People in the Society
There are various strategic initiatives that can be recommended with the intention to
improving the overall wellbeing of older people. These initiatives can be incorporated by the
older person themselves or by their families in an effort to improve the overall wellbeing of older
people in the society. These are as follows:
Exercise: Though recommending exercise to older people is an obvious initiative, it has been
scientifically proven by researchers that regular exercising of the body has immensely positive
impact on people’s physical and mental health which is essential to their overall wellbeing. This
is even more true for older people as the most common factor that negatively impacts their
overall wellbeing is their deterioration of their physical and mental health (Bryant and et.al.,
2017). Regular exercising can help older people avoid or mitigate the effects of diseases and
injuries that ail them, which would also improve their mental health effectively improving their
overall wellbeing.
Meditation: Though spirituality and meditation are sometimes viewed by younger people as
redundant and not beneficial, both spirituality and meditation can immensely help in calming
down a person and ridding them of their fears. This is immensely essential for older people as
fear is also one of the primary issues that decreases their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Spirituality and meditation can also rid them of their fear of being abused, harassed or harmed by
others and improve their wellbeing (Jackson, 2019). Spirituality and meditation has the potential
to help the older people come to terms with the inabilities that their older age imposes on them in
relation to loss of independence, reliance on others and lack of social circle which are amongst
the most striking problems that hinder the wellbeing of an older person in the society.

Support Groups: Another primary issue that lowers the overall wellbeing of older person is their
need and wish to have the same social circle that they did in their youth days. Though this is not
possible most of the time, older people can also join dedicated support groups in an effort to
make some friends and increase their dwindling social circle. The support and help of other
people becomes essential to older people in the society and in access to these will definitely
hinder their wellbeing. This would effectively be addressed if the older people decide to join
support groups as not only will it provide them with opportunity to meet people of their age and
experience, it would also show them they are not alone to feel the way they do and that its
perfectly normal to crave friendship and companionship in the later stages of one’s life.
Learning: Though most people study and learn new things in their youth and spend their adult
days trying to master a particular subject or interest, old age presents individuals with more time
than they know what to do with. This can be used to learn new things and interests which the
older person might not ever had time for in their youth (Mugisha and et.al., 2016). Continuous
learning and development is essential to feeling a sense of satisfaction with one’s life which is
also a key metric that determines the overall wellbeing of older people.
CONCLUSION
Based on this report, it can be effectively concluded that the physical, mental, social,
organisational and societal wellbeing of older people is of immense important issue in the current
society as it is steadily declining. The report assesses concepts of wellbeing relating to older
people. Then the report evaluates the primary issues that arise relating to the wellbeing of older
people in the society. Finally, the report recommends strategic initiatives that seek to enhance the
effectiveness of wellbeing that is currently being provided to older people.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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