Society That Has a Much

¶ … society that has a much higher percentage of older adults than any previous generation. The global median age is increasing due to a decline in fertility and a 20-year average increase in life span during the Post-World II era. In the United States alone, the proportion of the population aged > 65 is expected to increase from 12% in 2000 to almost double that, 20% in 2030. What that means from an economic perspective is that there will be far more older adults who need medical care than any other time in history (Public Health and Aging, 2003). There are several reasons that Americans should, but do not always, plan for medical care as they age. Many think Social Security and Medicare / Medicaid will handle everything or that the government will take care of them; many feel their finances are messy and they need every dollar for the moment, or that savings will handle a crisis; still others are both frustrated by the process and cannot even imagine retiring, let alone needed healthcare as an older adult (Neumann, 2010). Quite possibly the two most effective ways of bringing awareness to this issue would be for the Social Security Administration to do public service announcements (since there may be no social security), combined with a larger bill that would allocate Americans with some tax advantages if they invest in certain types of long-term care through their employer. That certainly will not completely solve the problem, but it would be a beginning.

Part 2 -- For the past few decades, many health care organizations have, for various reasons, been forced to rethink the way they do business, handle patients, technology, insurance, and rising healthcare costs. This has changed the paradigm of hospital care vs. home care, ambulatory care services, and/or rehabilitation centers. Additionally, and for the better, technology has helped with more procedures that can be done on an out-patient basis, requiring only a stay during the day. The marked shift towards home and ambulatory care was primarily financial -- an overnight stay in a historical can be upwards of $800/patient per night. Many studies found that medical staff were using hospital stays "just to be safe," or "just to be sure," particularly with new mothers, when it is just as appropriate to stabilize the patient and return them to a more nurturing and comfortable environment. Finally, there is the simple matter of services -- many hospitals no longer have the staff and services to handle larger number of patients who require only minimal care, preferring and needing to transfer that care load to those who need more attentive procedures (Paul, 2006; Mahant, Peterson, & Campbell, 2008).

Part 3 -- More than any other aspect of health care in the United States, mental health is littered with disparities in the availability and quality of service. Often, these disparities take on a cultural, age, or gender role. When combined with the financial barriers that block health care (whether or not the individual has insurance or not), it is one of the most risky segments of 21st century healthcare. This is quite ironic because over the last century so many improvements have been made in the field of disease prevention, public health, and approaches to health care. Even in the last few decades the country has matured in its approach to STDs and the HIV epidemic. Yet still, while we recognize that the brain is the very locus of the human "being" and while we know more today about treating mental illness effectively, rapidly, and with typically positive results, we still tend to stigmatize this segment of society with inadequate care, difficult access to that care, or in some rural or smaller towns and cities, zero access (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).