Common Good and Dignified Care for the old People

Common Good and Dignified Care for the Old People
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Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to discuss a healthcare issue that threatens common good all over the world. In other words, the aim is to identify a single unique problem and address how it does so and how it affects society. Similarly, it enlightens on the fact that common good means; meeting the needs of all individuals. We are all aware that the richness of the word “common good” has been concealed by the distinctive and rational culture in America. Also, sometimes the church’s has portrayed the tendency to use the term “common good’ as an ordinary word rather than a robust methodical tool. In healthcare, recent studies beg the question whether the old people as treated and valued the same way as others. How does lack of dignified care for the elderly undermine the common good? What is the stand of the Catholic Church on this issue with relation to the concepts of the common good? The essay is an insight-giving piece on these and other questions and concerns.
Common Good and Dignified Care for the Old People
The common good is one of the unique norms upheld the Catholic Church. There are other ideas and concepts held dearly by this church including solidarity and unique option for the poor. However, the latter has been less successful at portraying enduring vitality. The idea of the common good started many centuries ago, and the Catholics have been insistent on it for a long time.

However, the richness of this approach has been obscured by the individualistic and pragmatic culture in America as well as the church’s propensity to use the term “common good’ as a mantra rather than a robust analytic tool (Bryk, Lee & Holland, 1993). Therefore, the term public good is sometimes underused, and some people find public interest and greatest good more appealing. However, it should be noted that common good means “good of the whole” and neutralizes personal benefits. This essay aims to discuss how shared responsibility for the common good is not realized in the administration of dignified care for the old people.
The society today ought to be taught about the importance dignity and what it means to the old people. Evidently, an excellent example of this lack of dignity is a failure to give thought to the importance of helping people regardless of their appearance. Similarly, labeling old people as ‘geriatrics’ or ‘bed-blockers’ takes away their dignity. Nordenfelt (2009) asserts that when something is done for common good, it means that majority benefit and not just one individual. Also, it means that one minds the feelings and opinions of others in situations where they might be affected. For instance, a healthcare give should not expose the naked body of a patient to strangers or other patients (News, 2014). When this happens, the patient’s dignity is said to have been dishonored. Also, old patients prefer being asked how to be addressed, and by doing so, they feel dignified. One might consider these as small issues, but an issue that affects a single patient is bound to have an impact on an entire healthcare facility.
The value and worth of an old person are equal to that of any other person in the society. Therefore, for the common good, we should view the older people from the perspective of their life cycle and process of aging. If we see people as equally worth, we do not exclude the existence of a value of the difference (Tranvåg, Synnes & McSherry, 2016). Therefore, if we agree that taking aging into account is much better than disregarding it, then we can as well admit that we value each other’s life to ensure good relationships, love, and dignity. After all, we every young person ought to treat the old people the same way they would want to be treated when they get old. According to the Catholic idea of common good, it is not about meeting everybody’s material needs, but meeting relational needs that are vital to human existence as distinctive individuals living in the community. Therefore, the common good is every healthcare professional’s responsibility.
There are negative connotations associated with ageism that affect people’s perceptions of the old people’s ability to contribute and be productive in the society. When this is so, their value in the community is underrated, and their quality of life reduces significantly. The stereotypical image and negative connotation of old age also affect the quality of healthcare given to the old people. My people ask how caring for the elderly contributes to the common good and, therefore, they do not help them. In this case, the Catholic concept of common good is precious because it sees past an individual’s functional contribution. The common good in caring for the old can be easily comprehended in the discernment of their unique personhood. Healthcare professionals attend to people at different ages. Consider attending to a newborn baby with congenital disabilities, a multiple sclerosis teenage patient, and an old person in the last stage of dying from cancer. Which care contributes more to the common good? Notably, none of these patients requires healthcare support any less.
The typical life of the community does not only involve the external economic, well-designed connections. Therefore, caring for the old qualifies as satisfying common good because it loves and cares build relationships that connect the heart, spirit and the body. When the old people are not taken care of as they should, it hurts the society and common good in very many other ways. Therefore, healthcare is the community’s sacrament and a means to the common good. Even the most helpless and damaged individuals are part of the society’s identity. Why do people treat to care for the old differently from neonatal intensive care, physician’s failure to abandon the dying, assistants who clean Alzheimer’s patient and therapists who help the severely impaired with their communication? All these responsibilities can be called the sacramental ministers of the mystery of ordinary life.
A lot of research has been done systematically to identify the quality of dignified care provided to the old. For instance, Professor Michael Calnan and Dr. Win Tadd from Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social research and Cardiff University respectively researched 16 wards in 4 healthcare facilities in England and Wales. It was found out that the proper physical environment was not provided for the old people in most of the wards (Chomsky, Barsamian & Naiman, 1998). Majority of the elderly patients were unsatisfied with the disempowering environment in the acute wards and boredom due to lack of communal space and accomplishments. They were also concerned about being near the patient of the opposite sex. Most of the hospital staff observed that despite doing their best to provide equal services to all patients, they were ill-equipped. It was found out in the research that the society has little regard for the old to the point that there are few professionals with the adequate knowledge to deal with them.
In today’s society, corruption has erupted to the point that it is affecting the quality of care provided especially in private facilities. According to Lavastida (2000), some systemic and organizational factors are said to frustrate healthcare professionals and staff. For instance, In the research mention above, staff members we unhappy with the setting of Acute Trust priorities based on the measurable indicators of performance. Therefore, these healthcare issues do not promote the common good. If the old patients are unsatisfied, there are low chances of satisfying the older patients either. Therefore, delivery of the appropriate standards of care to all people, regardless of their age, is good for the entire community. The old people ought to be treated as equals in the society since they contribute to its well-being (Keane, 2002). Some people argue that between the elderly and the young, the latter should receive better care because the community needs able hands. It is illogical to discuss this from that perspective because the elderly also have much knowledge to offer to the society.
It goes without saying that the old people are frequent users of healthcare services. Therefore, unwarranted deaths increase the mortality rates when they receive poor and undignified care. What good is it to the society when more people die at the expense of inadequate care? When everybody in is happy with health care services, the community as a whole is peaceful (London, 2003). It is quite apparent that the old people suffer in silence and very few complain. They fear that complaining would adversely affect the quality of care they receive. Also, they never want to be seen as difficult patients. Nobody likes overburdening the other, and the only reason why they ask for help is that they need it (Valesquez, Andre, Shanks & Meyer, 2018). Therefore, helping the old for the common good increases love, satisfaction and improves population health.
In summary, this essay proves that common good is one of the most distinctive norms endorsed the Catholic Church. Also held dearly by this church are other ideas and concepts like solidarity and an exclusive option for the poor. However, the latter has been less successful at portraying enduring importance. The common good is a concept that enables people to do what is right and beneficial to everybody. It endorses solidarity and cohesion while eliminating selfishness. According to this essay, there are undesirable connotations linked with ageism that affect peoples’ discernment of the old people’s ability to give back to and be productive in the society (Geyman, 2017). When this is so, their value in the community is undervalued, and their quality of life decreases considerably. The stereotypical image and negative connotation of old age also affect the quality of healthcare given to the old people.
References
Bryk, A., Lee, V. & Holland, P. (1993). Catholic schools and the common good. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard University Press.
Chomsky, N., Barsamian, D. & Naiman, A. (1998). The common good. Monroe, ME: Odonian Press Distributed through Common Courage Press/LPC Group.
Geyman, J. (2017). Crisis in U.S. health care: corporate power vs. the common good. Friday Harbor, Washington: Copernicus Healthcare.
Keane, P. (2002). Catholicism and health-care justice: problems, potential, and solutions. New York: Paulist Press.
Lavastida. (2000). Health care and the common good: a Catholic theory of justice. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.
London, A. J. (2003). Threats to the common good: Biochemical weapons and human subjects
research. Hastings Center Report, 33(5), 17-25.
News, B. (2014). Getting Older How We’re Coping with the Grey Areas of Aging. Hoboken: Wiley.
Nordenfelt, L. (2009). Dignity in care for older people. Chichester, U.K. Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell.
Tranvåg, O., Synnes, O. & McSherry, W. (2016). Stories of dignity within healthcare: research, narratives, and theories. Cumbria: M & K Publishing.
Valesquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T., & Meyer, M. (2018). The Common Good. Scu.edu. Retrieved 19 January 2018, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/the-common-good/