Grumpy Old People Deserve Consideration

Complaining Senior Citizen

When orienting newly hired home health aides, one should always stress the problems and uniqueness of the situation that they will be encountering. By all means, what they should NOT expect to find is a smiling, polite, sweet and considerate patient behind that apartment door. To be sure, what they WILL find is a grumpy, complaining senior citizen.

But, Why?

The aide has tried her best to be kind, considerate and attend to all of the patient’s needs. Nevertheless, what they may not understand is that the assigned patient is in pain, discomfort and the aide represents an increasing and further loss of independence. Above all, it is critical to remember that old age is a time of a series of losses and the senior citizen must adjust to each one.

These include loss of:

health;
loved ones;
status through retirement;
sexuality, and,
in most cases, tighter budget constraints.

Most important of all, they are experiencing a substantial loss of independence.

Senior Social Issues

On medicinenet.com, Siamak T. Nabili, MD, MPH and Charles P. Davis, MD, PhD detail various social issues that affect the life and health of seniors. They cite: loneliness from losing a spouse and friends; inability to independently manage regular activities of living; difficulty coping and accepting physical changes of aging; frustration with ongoing medical problems and increasing number of medications; social isolation as adult children are engaged in their own lives; feeling inadequate from inability to continue to work; boredom from retirement and lack of routine activities, and financial stresses from the loss of regular income.

All in all, the elderly have the onerous task of adjusting to dramatic lifestyle changes under compromising circumstances. Moreover, given all that these seniors have to deal with, it would seem that these older people have a perfect right to be short tempered. With some understanding on the part of the rest of us, we have the ability to change the whole paradigm. Who says the elderly are “set in their ways”? They actually bear their lot with a great deal of grace and skill.