THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT HAS AN IMPACT ON HOW LIVE IN LATER LIFE
Our focus is primarily on what individuals and families can do but we need to remember that there are huge influences outside the control of the individual that influence and determine what happens to us as we live longer
The knowledge that we have about environmental factors is derived mainly from routinely collected statistics sometimes published by the Government but often by organisations like Age UK and the Centre for Ageing Better. The key environmental issues, both social and environmental, include
WHY KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT IS IMPORTANT
Activity, physical mental and social, is of vital importance in achieving optimal ageing, in keeping the gap between your actual level of ability and your best possible level of ability - the Fitness Gap- as narrow as possible. There are other things you need to do to tackle the two other determinants of how well you live, namely disease and your beliefs and attitudes and it is these beliefs and attitudes that influence decisions about keeping fit and active and decisions about disease, its prevention and treatment
Prevailing beliefs are negative for example
Our focus is primarily on what individuals and families can do but we need to remember that there are huge influences outside the control of the individual that influence and determine what happens to us as we live longer
The knowledge that we have about environmental factors is derived mainly from routinely collected statistics sometimes published by the Government but often by organisations like Age UK and the Centre for Ageing Better. The key environmental issues, both social and environmental, include
- Poverty both absolute and relative
- Mobility and the impact of Isolation
- The physical environment
- The impact of childhood pressures, particularly education
WHY KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT IS IMPORTANT
Activity, physical mental and social, is of vital importance in achieving optimal ageing, in keeping the gap between your actual level of ability and your best possible level of ability - the Fitness Gap- as narrow as possible. There are other things you need to do to tackle the two other determinants of how well you live, namely disease and your beliefs and attitudes and it is these beliefs and attitudes that influence decisions about keeping fit and active and decisions about disease, its prevention and treatment
Prevailing beliefs are negative for example
- Everything that happens after seventy is due to ageing and therefore cannot be influenced
- Old people are a burden
- Geing and dementia are one process
- What is need is to focus on disability and frailty
- Old people just need care
- There is no point in disagreeing with and old person
- Lets just be glad things are not worse
- Ageing by itself is not a cause of major problems till the late nineties
- People of any age can grow and develop
- Older people make an important contribution to society