Healthy Aging. Cross Cultural Caring and Aging

Healthy Aging

            Healthy aging describes the maintenance of optimal physical, mental and social wellbeing in elderly adults. This definition illustrates four key aspects of healthy aging. First, a healthy elderly adult should have their basic needs fulfilled. The elderly, like the rest of the population, should have access to safe housing, affordable and nutritious food, adequate clothing and healthcare services. Secondly, the community should implement sustained improvement of the health and wellbeing of the elderly through interventions that promote access to appropriate and affordable health care. Thirdly, the elderly adults should have access to opportunities for social and civic engagement in their community (Lundy & Janes, 2014). Finally, the community should implement systems and structures to support independence for the elderly. A healthy elderly adult should be able to perform most or all of the activities of daily living with minimal assistance for others. 

            Cross-Cultural Caring

            The geriatric nurse needs advanced cross-cultural competencies in order to deliver holistic care in the different settings. The elderly are at risk of multiple debilitating conditions. Their traditional health beliefs and practices influence significantly the success of the applied preventive and curative interventions. Furthermore, the cultural dictations of the decision-making authority and caregiver roles determine the stakeholders that must be engaged in the planning and execution of successful care for the elderly (Butler & Kaye, 2012). Cross-cultural incompetency impedes health promotion and disease prevention strategies targeting the elderly because the patient and caregiver perceive the strategies as alien. The healthcare provider cannot assume that the care approaches that apply to one patient will be effective for other patients with different cultural values and beliefs. Disregarding one or several important cultural values for the patient causes resistance to the planned interventions. This resistance causes the deterioration of health and wellness for the elderly.