As far as the health care sector is concerned, it is important to properly define the word senior.
As a senior, you are entitled to get a number of healthcare-related benefits from the government, as well as a number of discounts and other health care benefits.
The qualification criteria for seniority varies from sector to sector. There are many non-governmental organizations that will treat you as a senior as you cross your 50th year.
In the governmental sector, you will not be accepted as a senior citizen until you reach the age of 65. This is the age when you become eligible to receive the Social Security Administrations full retirement benefits.
The increased life expectancy has affected seniors, their aging process, their life styles and their needs in a number of ways.
Presently, the average life span of an American is 77.2 years. According to certain research starting from the mid-19th century, the life expectancy is increasing by three months, at an average, every year.
The ultimate consequence will be the average Americans’ life expectancy stretched to 100 years by the end of this century!
This is a quite revealing. This extraordinary longevity has to be accompanied by adequate advances in the sectors of health care and medicine.
What should be the basic needs of an elderly person in order to carry on with his life as comfortably as possible has become an issue of national importance?
In general, the senior people as a whole want to stay independent and want to keep an active life style.
We have reached an age where you can find a great number of elderly people, half of whose lives are spent in retirement.
The spending of retirement years in health and vitality is described by the phrase, active life expectancy.
This active life expectancy made it possible for increasing the number of seniors who take up new jobs, enroll in higher education, take up increased leisure activities, or increase their community involvement.
Despite this active life expectancy, the senior people, along with their families, require special attention and priority in their ripe old years.
In addition to financial security, seniors seek to sustain health and wellness so they can spend the remaining part of their lives in dignity and independence.
At the older ages, the minimum human needs, and affordable access to quality health care, go hand in hand.
Security is the big concern for the senior citizens as increasing number of senior people are falling victims to fraud, exploitation and several kinds of abuses.
All of this has contributed to the increasing number of cases of old age depression, even culminating in suicide.
Apart from basic services like feeding, bathing, or personal grooming, the senior people these days are in need of psychological counseling.
Two important things that they need at this stage of their lives are grief counseling and pain management.
The community services come as a blessing that can help these aged people to deal with loneliness and any anxiety disorder.
In addition, elderly people may want some recreation and socializing in their lives and many community-based support groups provide good assistance.
Lastly, it is a little love and sympathy from those around them that will help these senior people to sail through the dusk of their lives.
