In my experience when it comes to working with aged people, I have noticed a lot of challenges experienced by this group of people. In the last decade, Australian motility rates have indeed reduced with life expectancy increasing. This is because of the use of technology that has also increased quality care for the aged people in the population. Considering that the aging population faces a lot of health challenges maintaining their well-being and managing their continuous illnesses is very necessary. According to recent statistics, the population of older people is also increasing especially in industrialized and developing nations (Armstrong, Gillespie, Leeder, Rubin, & Russell, 2017). My observation is that accessing adequate services has been a problem, especially for the indigenous communities. When it comes to accessing health care in Australia there is a lot of inequality. Social determinants of health such as social economic ability have continuously led to poor health services, especially for the older indigenous people. Most of the old Australians find it very difficult to travel to access health professional services. Some of them have diverse cultural languages which affect communication consequently limiting their access to proper health care. The number of health care services and aged care residences in rural setups are also very few making it impossible for most of the indigenous communities to access edged care services. Lack of knowledge is also considered as a barrier to accessible healthcare services due to a lack of professionals and community services (Giles, Halbert, Gray, Cameron, & Crotty, 2019). There is also a lack of referral services from general practitioners for older people to access collaborative health care. Accommodation is also a challenge especially when aged people have been referred to access specialist health care from professionals. The longer queues and longer waiting times make it difficult for these people to access quality health care. I have also observed that aged people also lack the economic ability to access quality health care. Considering that some of them are indisposed and their energy levels have declined their income level is usually low due to their age since most of them have retired and their ability to work has also declined (Davis, Morgans, & Stewart, 2016). It becomes expensive to arrange for quality health care services. Most of the aged Australians are also suffering from chronic conditions and their reliance on fixed income has affected their access to quality health care. Ethical issues such as inequality racism and bias in terms of health provision have affected alter older people from minority groups. This can be proven by the higher prevalence of chronic and disabling diseases since these people have very limited access to their healthcare needs.
There is a big disparity when it comes to life expectancy between the indigenous and indigenous Australians due to the inevitable disparities when it comes to accessing aged care services. Older people living in remote communities have always been found to be lacking basic services due to their insufficient economic and community resources (Muir-Cochrane, O’Kane, Barkway, Oster, & Fuller, 2019). Factors like isolation distance housing income access to services and transport are also some of the challenges which are affecting the healthy ageing of rural people. For that reason, most of the indigenous communities will have a higher proportionate of home care services compared to residential care services.
In my few years of experience, I have noted that accessing admissions to residential aged-care facilities is a challenge. This is because accessing search facilities is very expensive. In addition, people admitted at residential aged care facilities are usually frail and have a higher chance of being admitted to the emergency department. Currently, the average age of residential aged care residents is 84.5 years. Out of this 50% are suffering from dementia while 26% are suffering from mental illnesses (Dellemain & Warburton, 2018). This is an indication that most of these people are suffering from a chronic disease which requires a lot of care. For that reason, aged people coming from indigenous communities may not be able to access these services because they are expensive. Moreover, most of these services are only available in urban centres while those in indigenous rural setups have to come up with ‘hospital at home’ interventions to help take care of patients suffering from these chronic diseases which require complex care needs. It has also become very difficult for aged people to access healthcare services especially those coming from culturally and linguistically diverse communities (Drummond, Mizan, Brocx, & Wright, 2019). This is because of the differences in terms of language which makes it very difficult for them to access quality health care. Australia has a wide diversity of communities that are growing with diverse cultural and linguistic differences. This has consequently evolved to be an emerging health challenge due to the inability to access quality healthcare services.
Biologically as people age, they tend to experience physiological changes which are associated with aging and this has a way of affecting the older people from accessing quality health care. There are a lot of risks that are associated with physiological changes in aged people. Some of the physiological changes prevent them from moving especially as most of them suffer from dementia (Greaves & Rogers-Clark, 2019). Lack of mobility also makes it difficult for them to be able to take good care of themselves. Physiological changes may also affect the aged people leading to comorbidities. The changes in physiological setup may also affect medications such as pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics.
Considering that age-related physiological changes affect medication medications I have witnessed a decrease in renal functioning which affects the aged people. This increases the need to access palliative care. Hepatic drug metabolism may be affected by aging as indicated from recent literature. Due to aging older people also become more sensitive to the effects of medication. This also leads to a higher demand for quality health care services which are sometimes not available. In addition, ageing also contributes to multiple chronic conditions and the existence of comorbidities demands quality palliative care. This is because functional impairments may accompany the aging process leading to shorter life expectancy which must be considered when it comes to providing quality health care.
Armstrong, B., Gillespie, J., Leeder, S., Rubin, G., & Russell, L. (2017). Challenges in health and health care for Australia. Med J Aust, 187(9):485–9.
Davis, J., Morgans, A., & Stewart, J. (2016). Developing an Australian health and aged care research agenda: a systematic review of evidence at the subacute interface. Aust Health Rev, 40:420–7. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH15005.
Dellemain, J., & Warburton, J. (2018). Case management in rural Australia: arguments for improved practice understandings. Aust Soc Work, 66(2):297–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2012.675345.
Drummond, P., Mizan, A., Brocx, K., & Wright, B. (2019). Barriers to accessing health care services for West African refugee women living in Western Australia. Health Care Women Int, 32:206–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2010.529216.
Giles, L., Halbert, J., Gray, L., Cameron, I., & Crotty, M. (2019). The distribution of health services for older people in Australia: where does transition care fit? Aust Health Rev, 33(4):572–82.
Greaves, M., & Rogers-Clark, C. (2019). The experience of socially isolated older people in accessing and navigating the health care system. Aust J Adv Nurs, 27(2):5–11.
Muir-Cochrane, E., O’Kane, D., Barkway, P., Oster, C., & Fuller, J. (2019). Service provision for older people with mental health problems in a rural area of Australia. Aging and Mental Health, 18(6):759–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2013.878307.
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