HLTH 380 Week 8 Belief Statement Example

Still Bearing Fruit: A Personal, Family and Professional Belief Statement About Aging

My Belief About Aging

I believe that later life is a season of continued growth and contribution, not only of decline. Psalm 92:14 says that the righteous still bear fruit in old age (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016), and this course has given me evidence and language to see that promise in practical terms. Aging brings real losses, but it does not end a person's capacity to love, learn, serve and grow in faith. Before this course, I thought of old age mostly in terms of nursing homes and illness. The interviews, readings and facility visit replaced that picture with a much more varied one, in which a 68-year-old learning Spanish and an 88-year-old praying for her great-grandchildren are both living out the same promise.

My Own Aging

When I think about my own aging, I want to pay attention to all five dimensions of health this course has studied, not just the physical one. Robnett and Chop (2015) describe how many changes once assumed to be inevitable can be slowed by activity, nutrition and engagement, so I plan to build habits now, such as regular exercise and staying connected to friends, that I hope to carry into my seventies and beyond. I also want to keep learning and to stay involved in my church, since purpose and faith appeared again and again in my interviews as the sources of contentment. My fear is becoming dependent on others, but this course has helped me see that receiving care can be another way of living in community. I hope I will be able to accept help graciously when I need it, and to remain useful in whatever ways my body allows, whether by mentoring, praying for others or simply listening to younger people who need someone to hear them.

Older People in My Family and Community

My grandmother is 86 and lives with my father, who has become her main caregiver. Watching them has shown me both the blessing and the strain of caring for an aging parent. Schulz and Sherwood (2008) describe family caregiving as a chronic stress that can affect caregivers' physical and mental health, even as many caregivers also find meaning in the role. My father needs support too, through respite care, help from siblings and a church that checks on him. I have watched him grow tired and short-tempered after long weeks of caring for her, and I now understand that his exhaustion is not a failure of love but a predictable result of carrying too much alone. In my community, I see older neighbors who still have much to give. Gruenewald et al. (2016) found that older adults randomized to serve as mentors in Baltimore elementary schools through Experience Corps reported a greater sense of contributing to younger generations than controls over two years. A community that only asks what its older members need, and never what they can give, misses half of who they are. Leviticus 19:32 tells God's people to stand up when an elderly person enters and to show older adults respect (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016), and honoring older people includes inviting their wisdom and service.

My Professional Perspective

As a future public health professional, I want to resist the assumption that symptoms are "just old age." Robnett and Chop (2015) emphasize that health professionals must distinguish normal aging from disease and must see each older adult as an individual. My facility visit showed me how much consistent relationships matter to residents, and my interviews showed that loneliness and lack of purpose can be as harmful as many diseases. In practice, I hope to support programs that keep older adults active and connected, advocate for caregivers and treat every older person with the dignity Scripture gives them. I also want to speak up for long-term care workers, whose low pay and high turnover affect the quality of care that so many older adults depend on, because the people who bathe, feed and comfort residents every day shape their lives more than any policy written about them.

Conclusion

This course has deepened my belief that aging is a season with its own purposes. Isaiah 46:4 records God's promise that even to old age and gray hairs he will carry his people (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016). I want to age with that trust, to honor the older people in my life and to serve older adults in my career as people who still bear fruit. If I hold to that belief, I expect it to change small things, like how patiently I listen to an older patient's story, as well as large ones, like the programs and policies I support as a public health professional.

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Gruenewald, T. L., Tanner, E. K., Fried, L. P., Carlson, M. C., Xue, Q., Parisi, J. M., Rebok, G. W., Yarnell, L. M., & Seeman, T. E. (2016). The Baltimore Experience Corps Trial: Enhancing generativity via intergenerational activity engagement in later life. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 71(4), 661-670. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbv005

Robnett, R. H., & Chop, W. C. (2015). Gerontology for the health care professional (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Schulz, R., & Sherwood, P. R. (2008). Physical and mental health effects of family caregiving. American Journal of Nursing, 108(9), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000336406.45248.4c