Risk and Protective Factors for Quality of Life Related to Elder Care Issues: Implications for Policy Development



Risk and Protective Factors for Quality of Life Related to Elder Care Issues: Implications for Policy Development

Introduction

Have you ever thought about why few people in the communities have superior and healthier outcomes than others? Why some kids in school are able to do well than other equally intelligent kids? Why some people in the community have better health status than others? And have you ever thought about changing outcomes?

It has been noted that there are many diverse and consistent causes of many issues and desired outcomes. If an organization is able to better understand these causes they can effectively use the knowledge to develop such interventions which are then able to contribute to community development and improvement.

But where to start from to make these changes effective? One very good start is to consider the various risk and protective factors that contribute to and are responsible for a specific issue or its desired outcome.

It makes sense to define first what risk and protective factors are. They are the features or characteristics of a person, group, environment or personal experience that make it either more likely (risk factors) or less likely (protective factors) that a person or group of people will experience a given issue or a desired outcome. For example if a person has the habit of smoking he is at risk of having lung cancer or heart attack which is a risk factor. But if he walks a certain distance every day his chances of having a heart attack are somewhat decreased which is a protective factor. So risk and protective factors are the main key to figure out how best to deal with the community development and health issues. It very much relates to the idea of stepping back from the problem, looking at the conditions and behaviors that were responsible for the problem and then trying to identify in how to best tackle these conditions (Community Toolbox, n.d, p.1).

Discussion

Elderly population living in the community faces a lot of issues and as mentioned above these issues can be tackled if their root causes and main behaviors are identified. Furthermore these risks and protective factors are present on various levels like individual, group, relationship, community and societal levels. There solutions accordingly have also been devised. In this paper I have discussed the risks and protective factors at two levels individual and community.

Risk Factors

At the individual level an inadequate and poor training or preparation for care giving responsibilities effectively act a risk for the elderly living in the community. Refusal or failure of the caregiver or other others to provide the elder citizen with the basic emotional or physical needs or failure to guard from harm is also a risk. For example inadequate shelter, clothing, hygiene or nutrition or necessary healthcare for the elder.

Lack of financial and social support. Living all alone is the one the many significant features that affect the ...