The Demographics of Aging Module 2 Nurse Responses to Elder Mistreatment An IAFN Education Curriculum

Learning Objectives By the end of this module, participants will be able to: Identify societal assumptions about aging and how these assumptions can affect nursing care of older adults Discuss basic demographic information about the older population Recognize difficulties posed by various age-related impairments Discuss data on heath of older population Discuss how generational values can affect an older adult’s recognition of mistreatment and willingness to seek help 2

Assumptions about Aging What negative attitudes and inaccurate assumptions do people have about older adults? Where do these attitudes and assumptions come from? How can these attitudes and assumptions affect care older patients receive in your practice setting? 3

Turn Assumptions Around Focus on facts related to aging and older adults rather than assumptions! What are some of these facts? 4

A Few Facts… Majority of older adults have no self- care deficits Older adults need to be treated as adults o -Put person before impairment o -Age does not equal incapacity Each older patient has unique needs and circumstances 5

Older Population Estimates Number of people age 65+ will increase over 50% by 2050 o 2008: almost 40 million o 2030: more than 70 million o 2050: almost 90 million Some ethnic groups will see more than a doubling of their older population Main source of data for statistics/charts in this module: Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics. Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being, Slide 15 from Older American 2000: Key Indicators of Well-Being. 6

Life Expectancy People who survive to age 65 can expect to live average of almost 19 years Of those who survive to age 85 o Women can expect to live average of 7 years o Men can expect to live average of 6 years 7

Sex Ratio For older adults 65 years and over: 70 men for every 100 women By 85 and over: more than 2 women for every 1 man 8

Potential Impairment As people age, they are more likely to experience impaired functioning o When civilian, non-institutionalized adults ages 65 and over were asked to rate their health, 74% of both men and women reported their health as good or better o Self-rated health status declined with age for all groups 9

10 Living Arrangements 4% reside in long-term care facilities on any given day 96% of adults ages 65+ live in community o -73% of older men are married /live with spouse o -42% of older women also live with spouse; 39% live alone. Widowhood is more common among older women than older men o -Some older adults live with other relatives o -Small % of older adults live with non-relatives

Poverty Less than 10% of older adults lived in poverty in

Living with Impairments Examples… Severe visual impairment Severe hearing impairment A stroke or has an arm fracture Arthritis in fingers Peripheral neuropathy Aphasia 12

Physical Functioning 13

Chronic Conditions 14

Memory Impairment 15

Depressive Symptoms 16

Use of Health Care Services 17

Nursing Home Utilization 18

Generational Values Historical Timeline o -Grandparents’ years of birth o -Events that occurred at different points on the line in their lives o -Additional historic events, inventions and norms of the times o -Effect of generational values related to elder mistreatment 19

20 Closing Assessment Write down one major concept you learned from this module and how you will apply it in your practice