Elderly Care Across Cultures

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Eldercare differs considerably among nations depending on the culture prevailing in the country. India is known to honor its senior citizens, and people traditionally take attentive care of elders at home. India is the second-most populous country in the world, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, which is situated in Asia near China, Thailand, and Pakistan (Satpathy, 2015). In the country, older adults live with other members of the family, and children and grandchildren make sure that the elderly have everything they need.

However, the country recently faced the problem of an aging population, which implies that India needs to organize the elderly care system, which includes nursing homes and hospices (Sinha, 2018). At the same time, the presence of multiple cultures and attitudes to end-of-life and care about the elderly makes it difficult to approach the question at the national level (Satpathy, 2015). Therefore, families are responsible for caring for the elderly.

Current practices in the US differ considerably from those in India. According to Aminbakhsh and Chau (2017), the majority of senior citizens are cared for in institutions, such as nursing homes and hospices. Even though, during the past years, more funds to home- and community-based programs, the number of Americans caring for their elderly parents is small in comparison with India (Larsen, 2016).

The first reason for the matter is that older adults in India are considered an honorable class, and families feel their duty to protect them (Satpathy, 2015). Second, people who cannot support their elderly relatives are considered poor or lazy, and children often feel embarrassed to put their mothers and father into nursing homes (Sinha, 2018). Finally, India’s values are more collectivistic in comparison with the US, where individual happiness is value the most (Satpathy, 2015). In short, the differences in elder care between the two cultures are easily explained.

References

Aminbakhsh, R., & Chau, D. (2017). A brief review of elder care in the U.S. and Europe over the last century. Innovation in Aging, 1(suppl_1), 958. Web.

Larsen, D. (2016). How do different cultures take care of seniors? Web.

Satpathy, B. (2015). Indian culture and heritage. Web.

Sinha, N. (2018). . Web.

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