Role of the family and of the social services in elderly persons' life

AuthorDiana-Cristina Bódi
PositionDept. Of Communication And Social Assistance, Transilvania University Of Brasov
Pages137-144

Page 137

1. Introduction

Longevity, associated with as good a health of elderly persons as possible, creates conditions for the period after retirement to become longer and longer, a positive thing, which brings however a series of problems. One of the problems refers to the funds of the social insurance, both for health, and retirement, the necessity of which is ever-increasing. Another major problem within a society with a high percentage of the elderly population is connected to the constitution of a social and occupational frame for elderly persons, so that these ones might lead a civilized life. The researches in the field reveal the fact that the elderly persons and couples undergo a diminution of the living standard, in the majority of cases [9]. To these there adds a special social- psychological situation, that we may havedifficultly in understanding unless we experience it. This is the professional unemployment, the retirement from the work of the persons who are still capable, available both intellectually and culturally. Subjectively driven in a process of recovery of the structures of the personality and of the self awareness through the dissolution of the professional sub-identity, third age persons are for society a source of experience, intelligence, aptitudes, which, within contemporary world, are totally neglected.

2. Family - Factor of Maintenance of the Elderly Person's Identity

For the elderly persons, family constitutes itself in a vital, essential factor, its behaviour considerably influencing their state of health, the quality of life and their life expectation. The family and the appurtenance group maintain in elderly persons the viable condition of identity and the appurtenance to the self awareness.

In order to understand the familial system, we have to note its members' behaviour in time [4]. Much of what we doPage 138daily is due to habit, which may be transmitted from one generation to the other. Consequently, the nature of the domestic organization or disorganization, the adopted roles, the distribution of the tasks within the family, the manners of communication, as well as of verbal and non-verbal expression of the feelings, have to be taken into consideration when we explore the signification between interaction and elderly persons. In the second part of life, any person goes through several stages [4]:

- "the nestle emptying", after the children leave the parental home and move alone;

- crisis of the middle age which, both for women and men, occurs between 35-55 years old;

- preparation for retirement, between 55- 64 years old;

- retirement or "the youngest elder age", between 65-74 years old;

- elder age, between 75-84 years old;

- eldest age, between 85 years old;

- outlining of death, as certain event in non-predictable time.

These stages are characterized both by the feeling of loss, and by the feeling of gain: loss of the children who leave home and gain of a greater comfort and space. The modality in which the respective person perceives the changes may be influenced by the manner in which the other members of the family and the society perceive them.

The person's retirement from the professional activity and from the afferent social circuits incurs upon himself/herself the restriction and the loss of the professional and social responsibility, which determines an accentuated focus upon the family relation, where he/she finds, many a time, insufficient understanding.

The conclusion has been reached that the system of family relations, the psychological and affective climate influence the development and the formation of the young generation, the health of the middle generation and preeminently of the elderly generation.

The mutations appeared in the family, due to the evolution of contemporary society, brought about the change of the elderly persons' familial status and of the roles deriving from this status (rights, responsibilities, authority, degrees of autonomy). There were also produced changes in the attitude of the "non-elderly members of the family", who no longer observe the elderly person's anterior status, thereupon adding the brusqueness, the tactlessness and the lack of training with whom these changes are made [1].

The family is the place for learning affectivity, for the mutual comprehension of the feelings (listening, self-giving), but also of the conflicts (aggressiveness, despise, irony, neglect).

Only a warm familial climate may delimitate a balanced, complete and happy life for one's own person and for the rest. Many a time, a conflicting reality lies at the basis of an institutional placement of the elderly persons, the family hiding, in this case, the real motives for the placement. Another important element that intervenes in the elderly person's relation with the world is his/her deficit, on the somatic and psychic level. Likewise, the restriction of the activity field implies the restriction of the relational field, and the elderly person focuses his/her entire attention on the family and on the relations within it.

In the families in which there are elderly persons, there may come up a series of problems with respect to who is responsible. For many years there may have been a relationship of friendship between two generations of adults within a family, each one leading one's own existence independently. However, a crisisPage 139or an event more or less expected may...

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