Ageism in Healthcare Assignment

Ageism in health care represents the intentional or subconscious discrimination experienced by the elderly people in the provision of medical care (Miller, 2009). Studies conducted by Butler revealed that left over feelings among healthcare professionals past have a bearing on the perceptions of old patients and therefore influence service delivery to the mentioned persons. Butler also mentions cultural attitudes of psychotherapists as a contributing factor to poor healthcare to the aged patients (Miller, 2009).Australian population is aging fastest than before. The older population stood at 13% of the population in 2007 and is projected to reach 24% of the population in the year 2056. The Statistics also show that 80% of Australians above 60 years have experienced some form of ageism (Ferguson, 2012).Ageism in Healthcare Assignment

Ageism is not an exclusive problem to the Australian society. By 2050, it is expected that 16.3 percent of the population in the world will be aged 65 years and more. Particularly, in England, the number of elderly people that require special medical care is expected to rise above 60% by the year 2060.Statistics indicate that 36.8% of the older English population have experienced age discrimination and the malpractice is prevalent with people aged 65 years and above. The mentioned figure further rises to 37.2% for those aged 70-79 years ((In Eilers, In Gruber, & In Rehmann-Sutter, 2014).These figures allude to a bleak future for the older generation regarding medical care if the current trends are not addressed. Cognizant of these trends, many countries have taken measures to address the problem. In spite of the increased awareness, old people continue to experience discrimination in the provision of medical care.

Age-biased decisions may be as a result of the belief that the elderly patients may be selective on the kind of medication they want. This stereotype has an influence on the medical interventions administered to the elderly patients. The elderly patients may decline some forms of treatment even after being offered to them by the doctors and nurses. Patients with advancing ages may also reject the use of chemotherapy for the patients with cancer (Stricof, 2015). Schulz (2013) argues that there is a need to facilitate the decisions that will reflect on their preferences is by eliciting them at individual levels. The elderly cancer patients were just as the young patients likely to be in need of chemotherapy. After making the choice of receiving treatment, there was a likelihood of not accepting the significant toxicity in exchange for their added survival. For instance, decisions have been made by the physicians to exclude elderly women from trials of treatment in the health care, a clear illustration of the biased health treatment of patients. Concerning age effects, treatment decisions made by the medical workers made at a time when it is inappropriate for physicians to make use of chronological age such as at protocols of trial participations which at a times may include upper limits of the ages (Bala &Canada, 2011). It is important to overcome some of these beliefs especially in of health care centers for the sector to comprehensively address the issue of ageism.Ageism in Healthcare Assignment

There is little preventive care given to the elderly people. This is because some of the older adults have been found not receiving flu shots and also very fewer get the pneumococcal vaccine which is capable of preventing serious bloodstream infections, or even undergoing cancer screenings (Gullette, 2011). This has resulted in very many deaths that could be avoided if preventive measures were taken. All this could be due to lack of awareness as well as education on the part of both physicians and patients. These treatment attitudes play a significant role in the disparities of preventive measures of screening that are administered to elderly patients. Research findings have also established that doctors are less aggressive in times of recommending preventive measures to the elderly patients (Susman, 2014)