Family in Later Life Recommendations
Format APA
Volume of 2 pages (550 words)
Description
Family in Later Life Recommendations
The next step in the multidisciplinary approach is to develop recommendations based on the synthesis and analysis of your family in later life interview results completed in Unit 5. In the synthesis and analysis, you identified some common issues. Now, from the view of a human service and public service leader, complete the following in a 1,250-word paper:
Create recommendations to facilitate the quality of life for families in later life. Address the issues you identified in your Unit 5 assignment, along with these:
Physiological, psychological, sociological, and cultural aspects.
Formal and informal caregiving.
Living arrangements.
Productivity and retirement.
Death and dying.
Other.
Predict the effect of these recommendations on the families in later life.
Determine the impact of the social, political, and environmental aspects on the families based on the predictions you made in your Unit 5 assignment, and describe the impact in detail.
Support your recommendations and the impact of those recommendations with reference to the course materials, the Riverbend City family, and current professional research and theory.
Use APA style and formatting for your paper.
Section 2
Synthesize the interview results, summarize and combine the information about the families’
The three families had diverse information socially, demographically and in all aspects of life perhaps because of their ancestry origin. Family one was African American and comprised of females who occupied a more significant percentage of 55% as compared to their counterparts the males. The family had an age average of 60 and below, an indication that the family was not a very old family. Socially, the family interacted with the community to the extent that the community supported them as the majority of the family members were retired, an indication that the employed were not capable to adequately sustain the retired members of the family. The family lived a fair life, meaning they were not so poor to depend on everything from the community.
Family 2 was an Indian family that resided in the US, a majority being males in the family. The family lived a high-class lifestyle as many of the family members could afford to drive luxurious cars. The family had members averaging between 52-58 years, an indication that the family was old enough. The family did not depend on anything from the community as they were wealthy enough to provide for themselves. Many of the family members having retired they could still benefit from pension plans indicating that the family members had well-paying jobs. The family had members who were more educated as they could afford to get jobs that could earn them pension benefits in their later ages.
Analyze the interview results, compare and contrast common themes of the families’
The last family was a Caucasian family who lived the most impoverished life as compared to family one and two. The family members had an average age of 48-50, indicating that it was the youngest family among the three families. The family members could not afford to sustain themselves and thus had to depend on government subsidies.
The Indian family was the most developed family followed by the African American and lastly the Caucasian family. In making a comparison between the three families, a gap is more significant from the average age to all aspects of life. The Caucasian family is dominated by poverty and lack of education as their jobs could not even earn the pension benefits. Whereas the Indian family was in a higher social class where they could sustain themselves even in the later elderly ages, and this is evident as the Indian family is older than the Caucasian family yet they cannot support themselves at the younger age. It is a clear indication that the Caucasian family is likely not able to sustain itself in the later ages (Bengtson, & DeLiema, 2016).
Explain the issues or problems that may exist in the families.
The African American and Caucasian families had problems of poverty. The two families did not benefit from pension benefits probably because their job group did not attain the level of enjoying the pension benefits as compared to the Indian family (Cummings, & Galambos, 2016)..
Secondly, the two families’ members are most likely to have lived under discrimination and racial segregation which might have affected their education level, and later getting jobs as compared to others because of their low qualifications for available positions (Cummings, & Galambos, 2016)..
Predict the impact of the social, political, and environmental aspects of the families based on your interview results
From the interview results, it is evident that almost every family lived a life that was closely associated with their ancestry origin. For instance, the African American family lived a fair life. The family comprised ancestry origin from Africa. Africans in the past were slaves in America thus the discrimination still is in existence. The African American family might have lacked the adequate education to enable them to earn a higher social class as compared to the Indian family (Schaan, 2014). Despite the fact that racial discrimination is condemned, the African Americans are still likely to be discriminated concerning job offerings as compared to the indigenous ethnic communities. However, the community is offering them support at their old age; it is an indication that the family is accepted in the community (Cummings, & Galambos, 2016)..
Regarding the Indian family, they are wealthier than the other two families. Indians are business oriented people and are more educated than the Africans and Caucasians. The Indians having obtained quality education from their homeland and came to live the US is an indication that they did not experience any discrimination from their motherland and thus being educated than the other two families who had their ancestry origin from a different continent.
Schaan, (2014), lifestyles in most cases determine how individuals relate and associate with the society. For instance, the Caucasian family that was poor mainly interacted with the community to get help and support for sustenance. On the other hand, the wealthy Indian family lived a prestigious life which enabled the family members to sustain themselves in their old ages after retirement without community support. The African American family also interacted with the community to get help; however, they did not solely depend on the community as compared to the Caucasian family which was the most impoverished family among the three families interviewed.
Cummings, & Galambos (2016), in their book Diversity and aging in the social environment, state that the social environment also determines the lifestyle that one is likely to live later in life. For instance, all the Caucasians were poor, and all the Indian family members lived a luxurious life. The social environment significantly impacts the life standard that one is likely to live. The same case to the African American family which lived an average life that enabled the family members not to depend on the community support solely. None of the low-income family members was rich and vice versa.
References
Bengtson, V. L., & DeLiema, M. (2016). Theories of Aging and Social Gerontology: Explaining How Social Factors Influence Well-Being in Later Life. Gerontology: Changes, Challenges, and Solutions [2 volumes]: Changes, Challenges, and Solutions, 25.
Cummings, S. M., & Galambos, C. (Eds.). (2016). Diversity and aging in the social environment. Routledge.
Schaan, B. (2014). The interaction of family background and personal education on depressive symptoms in later life. Social Science & Medicine, 102, 94-102.
