| Course | HLTH 8815 Gerontology & Healthy Aging |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 3 |
| Paper type | Function profile |
| Length | About 600 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | PhD in Public Health |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 8815 Week 3
Function Profile: An 81-Year-Old Composite Renter in a Third-Floor Walk-Up, With Capacity First, Her Building's Demands Second, Their Meeting Points in an Ordinary Week Third and Her Diagnoses Last in an Appendix
Student Name
Walden University
HLTH 8815: Gerontology & Healthy Aging
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Function Profile: An 81-Year-Old Composite Renter in a Third-Floor Walk-Up, With Capacity First, Her Building's Demands Second, Their Meeting Points in an Ordinary Week Third and Her Diagnoses Last in an Appendix
Purpose
This profile describes Mrs. Hall, a composite 81-year-old who rents a third-floor apartment in a building without an elevator. She stands for one segment of the county's older population: people living alone in older rental housing whose capacity is declining but who still manage independently. The profile leads with what she can do, then describes what her building allows, then shows where the two meet in an ordinary week. Her diagnoses come last.
What She Can Do
Mrs. Hall dresses, bathes in a shower with a grab bar and prepares simple meals on her own. She manages her medications with a weekly pill organizer and pays bills by check, two of the instrumental activities that standard scales track alongside shopping and housework (Lawton & Brody, 1969). She walks indoors without an aid and outdoors with a cane for short distances, about two blocks before she needs to rest. She can climb stairs slowly, one step at a time with a hand on the railing, but needs to stop at each landing. She sees well with glasses and hears conversation in quiet rooms but struggles in crowds. In the terms the World Health Organization uses, her intrinsic capacity is moderate and declining in mobility, stable in cognition and self-care (Beard et al., 2016).
What Her Building Allows
Her apartment is on the third floor, 42 steps from the street, with a landing at each floor. The railing is on one side only. The laundry is in the basement. The mailboxes are in the entry hall. The nearest grocery store is six blocks away, and the bus stop is three blocks away on a street with a steep grade. Her landlord does not allow her to install a second railing.
Where Capacity and Environment Meet
Each row shows the same pattern. Her capacity would allow the activity in a different building. The stairs convert moderate mobility limits into restricted participation. Verbrugge and Jette (1994) described this as the point where functional limitation becomes disability, shaped by the environment. The gerontological idea of environmental press, the fit between what someone can manage and what a place asks of them, fits her situation closely: modest increases in demand produce large losses in what she does.
Table 1
An Ordinary Week: Where Mrs. Hall's Capacity Meets Her Building
| Activity | Capacity required | Environment's demand | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting the mail | Walk to entry, climb 42 steps back | Three flights, one railing | Goes down every second day | |
| Laundry | Carry basket down and up four flights | Basement laundry, no elevator | Hand-washes small items; neighbor carries a load monthly | |
| Groceries | Walk six blocks, carry bags up three flights | Distance and stairs | Uses a delivery service she pays for | |
| Doctor visits | Reach bus stop, ride, walk from stop | Steep street to bus | Takes a taxi; skips nonurgent visits | |
| Social contact | Leave building for weekly senior lunch | Stairs both ways | Attends about half the weeks | |
Mrs. Hall is a composite; the building and week are illustrative.
What the Profile Implies for Planning
For people like Mrs. Hall, the most useful supports change the environment or bridge it: ground-floor housing options, grocery and laundry help, and transportation to the senior lunch. A falls program aimed at her balance would help but would not solve the stairs.
Appendix: Diagnoses
Osteoarthritis of both knees; hypertension, controlled; mild hearing loss; cataract surgery in both eyes five years ago.
References
Beard, J. R., Officer, A., de Carvalho, I. A., Sadana, R., Pot, A. M., Michel, J.-P., Lloyd-Sherlock, P., Epping-Jordan, J. E., Peeters, G. M. E. E., Mahanani, W. R., Thiyagarajan, J. A., & Chatterji, S. (2016). The World report on ageing and health: A policy framework for healthy ageing. The Lancet, 387(10033), 2145-2154. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00516-4
Lawton, M. P., & Brody, E. M. (1969). Assessment of older people: Self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. The Gerontologist, 9(3, Part 1), 179-186. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/9.3_Part_1.179
Verbrugge, L. M., & Jette, A. M. (1994). The disablement process. Social Science & Medicine, 38(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)90294-1
What the HLTH 8815 Week 3 instructions ask for
Students build a profile of an older adult, often a composite, that describes function before diagnosis. Faculty expect capacity to be described through concrete daily activities rather than test scores alone, and the environment to be described in equal detail. The strongest profiles show where capacity and environment meet in ordinary routines, revealing which restrictions come from the person and which from the setting. A table of a typical week is an effective format. Faculty value profiles that state which population segment the individual represents and what the profile cannot show about that segment. Diagnoses should appear only after function, often in an appendix. Implications for planning should follow from the meeting points identified rather than from the diagnoses listed.
How the HLTH 8815 Week 3 example is put together
The profile opens by placing Mrs. Hall in a population segment and stating its order. The capacity section describes self-care, medications, money, walking, stairs, vision and hearing, cites Lawton and Brody for instrumental activities, and summarizes her intrinsic capacity in the WHO terms used by Beard and colleagues. The building section lists its steps, railing, laundry location, mailboxes and distances to the store and bus. Table 1 sets out five weekly activities with the capacity required, the environment's demand and the result. A paragraph interprets the pattern with Verbrugge and Jette's disablement process and the idea of environmental press. A planning section names environmental supports, and the appendix lists her four conditions.
Reading the HLTH 8815 Week 3 rubric
Profiles in this course are judged on whether function and environment carry the description. A profile that leads with diagnoses, or describes function in vague terms, misses the point of the assignment. Strong profiles describe capacity in specific daily activities, describe the setting with the same specificity, and show their interaction in a structured way, such as a weekly table. Using a framework to interpret the pattern adds analytic weight. Graders value an explicit statement of which population segment the person represents. Planning implications score well when they follow from the meeting points between capacity and environment. A labeled composite and accurate citations complete the work.
HLTH 8815 Week 3 help: mistakes that cost marks
Function profiles often start with a list of conditions and then describe limitations caused by each. To write a stronger profile, begin with what the person does in a normal day: dressing, cooking, managing pills, walking, climbing. Then describe the setting in equal detail: stairs, distances, where the laundry is. Build a table of a typical week that shows where the two meet and what happens. Look for a pattern in which the setting, rather than the person, limits participation. Interpret it with a framework. Put diagnoses last. Say which group of residents the profile represents. Name the population segment your instructor wants and a profile in this order can be built for it.
Get a HLTH 8815 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Tell the desk which population segment the profile should stand for, and attach the prompt and rubric. The profile returned leads with capacity in each domain, pairs each with the surroundings that shape it, and holds diagnoses to an appendix. She is a composite of the segment, not a portrait. Delivered in 24 to 48 hours; a first profile is free.
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HLTH 8815 Week 3 questions, answered
Why are the diagnoses at the end of the profile?
Because the assignment asks for capacity before conditions, and placement is the clearest way to show that order. The four diagnoses are listed accurately and each is linked to the domain it affects, so nothing is hidden. Placing them first would invite a reader to see the woman as her conditions and read everything after through them, which is the habit the week is designed to break.
Can a profile of one person represent a population?
It can stand for a segment, provided it says which one and admits what it cannot show. The sample states that it represents older renters living alone in walk-up buildings, and it notes that counting such residents would need survey data. Naming the segment in the opening paragraph, and returning to it at the end, is what makes a profile like yours defensible.
Where can I find a free HLTH 8815 Week 3 sample paper?
You can read the complete Week 3 function profile here, describing a composite 81-year-old in a third-floor walk-up by capacity and environment first, with diagnoses in an appendix, and three references.
Why do the stairs matter more than her diagnoses?
Her capacity would allow most of her weekly activities in a building with an elevator. The 42 steps turn moderate mobility limits into restricted participation, which is why the profile treats the environment as the main source of her disability.
How is capacity described without screening scores?
Through everyday actions, such as dressing, managing a pill organizer, walking two blocks with a cane and climbing stairs one at a time with a railing. These descriptions show what she can do in terms a planner can use.