Vulnerable Populations

Vulnerable Populations

Introduction

Vulnerable populations are the three main groups of people living in the society are the elderly, disabled people and the young children, sharing the common characteristics in the community. These three groups of the community are the victim of financial constraints, insufficient awareness of the happening and lack of services and resources. For this reason, these groups cannot cope up their need by themselves, so they are relied on other in order to have appropriate support and services. Each of these groups also faces different challenges regarding poverty, health issues and transients.

The Elderly

In United States, the family sizes are shrinking rapidly with the falling birth rate. With the falling birth rate, the average fertility rate is now lower than 2 children per women. These stats indicate that the fertility rates in the developed nations are decreasing rapidly or may be the population rate is declining at an alarming rate.

On the other hand, the stats also indicate that the old age population is also rising in the developed countries. In year 2000, it was estimated that 15% of the population living in United States are aged, and this will be doubled by year 2050. The aging populations are the major concern in the developed countries. Aging population does have negative impact on the society. Rising aging population in the developed nation have the direct impact on economy. As the populations aging 45-55 are getting retired from their jobs, they are becoming more dependent on their families. Government will raise the tax as lesser population will be employed. Moreover, the health service provider won't be able to manage the cost of high rate of aging populating, resulting in lowering the health care service quality. Higher the tax rate, results in the rising poverty rate in the country. These were the situations that many of the developed nations are facing mainly because of the elderly or the aging population in the country. Government should take timely and effective action in order to cope up with these issues in future.

The gradual process of maturation is known as aging. There are both positive and negative component of growing old. The positive components of aging are: an increase in wisdom, expertise, and experience. The negative components of decline are what is termed as senescence and refers to the decline in the capacity for cells to divide and grow. This decline will ultimately lead to death. There are also many changes that occur with aging. Some can be the result of disease, lifestyle, and environmental exposures. Because people age so differently it is hard to define between normal and usual aging. Some people may acquire diseases in old age, while others seem to escape them and die of what is termed as “old age”. The process by which harmful effects are minimized is referred to as “successful aging”. These people avoid the experiences of undesirable features of aging and remain physically and mentally functional.

With aging there are many physiologic functions that ...