The Importance of Holistic Nursing Care for the Over 50s

Holistic primary care, or holistic nursing care can be defined as a customized treatment and wellbeing program that has been specifically tailored around the patient. However, unlike traditional care, the holistic approach recognizes six separate parts of a human being, categorized under external systems and internal systems. The internal systems signify a man or a woman’s body, mind and spirit, while the external systems are their family, community, and environment.

Now, can holistic nursing care be considered as something that is ideal for someone who is roughly 50-years or older? The answer depends on who they are, how they are feeling and whether or not there is a reason or multiple reasons to be concerned about their wellbeing. Let’s now take a deeper look at the subject to find a proper answer to the question.

Sometimes Age Has Little to Do with One’s Physical and/or Mental Condition

It’s true that holistic care is generally meant for people above the age of 65, but it isn’t exactly an age-restricted treatment philosophy by any means. Rather than treating the wholesome approach as a life care strategy for the wellbeing of seniors, holistic primary care should be used on an ‘as needed’ basis.

It should not matter whether the patient is 50, 70, 80 or 20; if they can benefit from a holistic approach to nursing treatment, then it should be implemented. There is no denying the fact that despite all that, seniors and the elderly will always be in most need for holistic nursing care, but it is not a service that is exclusively applicable and useful for the oldest generations alone. Besides, fifty can feel like sixty for some of us and we will discuss the reasons why that can and often does happen next.

We Do Not All Age Similarly

Generalization is simultaneously a solution and a problem in healthcare. It is a viable solution at times because generalized standards make things manageable when the scale increases massively. Unfortunately, the same generalization often prevents a patient from getting the care he/she needs specifically, due to its abstract ideas.

Holistic care believes in providing care specifically to the patient in question, which is exactly what makes it such a wholesome and individually effective process. This is particularly important for the 50+ age group because:

• The physical and mental factors that age us are seldom similar, and make themselves more apparent in the aging process
• We do not all age similarly, even if the physical and mental factors are similar
• There are medical, congenital, ethnic, psychological and lifestyle related factors that further contradict the generalization of any age group
• Once we cross over the threshold of 50, we are at a precarious stage and a good percentage of people begin to age a lot faster from this point onwards
• As we get older, the physical age difference between the two older generations begins to decrease
• An afflicted 50-year old could need holistic primary care even more severely than a 70-year old who is in perfect shape

Traumatic Mental and Physical Shocks Can Age Older Generations Much Faster

A veteran who has lost his legs while fighting for his country may need medical and holistic care, even if he is in his fifties or early sixties. However, holistic care takes precedence in such cases for providing long-term healing and care.

Unlike what most people might be able to ascertain, losing one’s limbs is not just a temporary mental trauma, but a permanent one. Timely treatment and prosthetics can help the victim of an accident or a war veteran to come to better terms with the physical aspect of losing their limbs, but the mental trauma is a completely different problem altogether.

Holistic care providers understand this more than most, which is why their care routines involve catering to patients for improving their psychological and spiritual wellbeing, powered by managing external factors such as the impact of family members, the surrounding environment and the very community in which the patient currently lives.

It is often said that “age is just a number,” but there is more truth to the old saying than we care to admit. People in their 50s are particularly found to be among the most mentally and physically vulnerable age groups. This is because people often do not see them as individuals who might need help, which includes the individuals themselves. So, we should change the perception and instead focus on who needs the help, rather than who should need the help.