Essay Sample on The Politics of Healthy Aging

The well-being of the elderly is becoming one of the most debatable factors across the United States, especially considering the variables that come in play to abstract the equity of healthcare services to the elderly minorities (Singh, & Siahpush, 2016). The debate regarding healthcare has subjected most of the elderly blacks to live in severe conditions, as the motivation to abstract the services continues. Blacks are the second largest community in the US, dating from the end of the slave trade in the nineteenth century. However, irrespective of the efforts employed to free the black community, inequality has been experienced in the medical field, as services to the elderly are gradually deteriorating due to racial motivation and political insights, which are slowly dividing the nation.

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The medical field in the US has reportedly fought for longevity, which implies offering essential services to prolonged the age of the elderly community. However, the subject has been brought under numerous scrutiny in debating the authenticity of the practice, and if the services are equally reaching every member, as per the requirements. However, the services have been termed as expensive as one of the limiting factors that force the services not to be equally distributed. On the contrary, racial discrimination has been playing along, as it is indirectly practiced to help insulate the good deeds of the medical services in the nation. According to Hansen and Metzl, (2016), healthy aging has been termed as a theoretical approach that has failed to deliver equity and essential services to the elderly community. Even though the theoretical perspective and the outlined concepts provide a suitable blueprint for offering services, the health aging has remained unavailable to most of the colored communities.

Economic inequality in the American population has increased the rift between the poor and the rich. Moreover, the twist of this concept has been experienced on racial discrimination basis, where it is strongly affecting the black community. Social power has provided an avenue to provide quality healthcare services to the majority, especially those with higher social status, without considering the public sector. Therefore, social differences have widened the rift of providing healthcare services to the black community.

Social workers play a vital role in the elderly community, as they increase the quality of life and their families. Therefore, social workers are uniquely positioned to promote good health, wellness, and nutrition (Benson, et al., 2019). One of the significant roles of inequalities in the aging community is unfair programs to take care of the elderly, especially those with low income. Therefore, asocial workers take the responsibility of advocating for the elderly, to help implement programs that offer health services to the elderly, as a way of providing healthy aging.

The Obama care Act has played a vital role in the healthcare sector, as all American citizens are provided with a health cover. Before the implementation of the Act, healthcare remained to be expensive and beyond reach for many Americans. However, the implementation of the Act gave the Americans an opportunity to access healthcare services across the country.

The Obama Act brought about equity in the American medical care system by considering the local citizens and their income. Therefore, the Act marked the beginning of the equity in the healthcare system. However, this concept has not been fully implemented, with the elderly being the common victims of the subject.

Social workers, in conjunction with other healthcare social workers, can implement and test essential healthcare programs to help provide equity to healthy aging, as minorities are becoming servilely affected (Ridgway, 2019). Information about inequalities in the health sector should be widely condemned, with the social worker being on the front line to advocate for the inequalities. Therefore, spreading of the inequalities will help in combatting the increase in the degree of inequalities.

On the contrary, social workers should push for community and government collaboration in fighting for a fair aging. The implementation of healthcare programs geared towards helping the elderly will help advocate for the rights of the elderly, hence bringing about healthy aging.

References

Benson, J. J., Sloan, S., & Halt, A. K. (2019). Human Relationships and Healthy Aging. In Healthy Aging (pp. 319-328). Springer, Cham.doi.10.1007/978-3-030-06200-2_28

Hansen, H., & Metzl, J. (2016). Structural competency in the US healthcare crisis: putting social and policy interventions into clinical practice. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 13(2), 179-183.doi.10.1007/s11673-016-9719-z

Ridgway, V. (2019). Social Work Students’ Perceptions of Ageing. Practice, 31(2), 117-134.doi.10.1080/09503153.2018.1473356

Singh, G. K., & Siahpush, M. (2016). Inequalities in US life expectancy by area unemployment level, 1990–2010. Scientifica, 2016.doi.10.1155/2016/8290435