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New Strategies Combat Old Ideas of Aging
By Paul
Arfin*, Newsday.com
November 29, 2005
Long Islanders need to develop strategies to promote a more positive and accurate view of aging and to help those older than 55 deal with their prospective and actual retirements.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's Commission on Creative Retirement is studying the effect of a large increase in the county's adult population. Issues include the current perception of aging and how to reduce fears and misconceptions surrounding it.
The commission recognizes the impact of longer life expectancies and improved health measures. Suffolk has more than 300,000 residents born between 1946 and 1964, the baby boomers. From all indications, boomers have a very different view of retirement and aging from previous generations. According to Merrill Lynch's 2005 Retirement Survey, boomers plan to create a new life stage where yesterday's retirement model is rejected, replaced with one that balances work, leisure and public service.
Experts encourage us to see a person's assets as renewable over long periods instead of peaking early in life, reaching a plateau and steadily declining. This is a different view from one that portrays older people as unable to absorb new information, learn new skills, multitask and get along with people of all ages. Countless examples of older-age creativity abound in the sciences, in business, in public service and other walks of life.
The commission plans to publicize stories about successful aging and produce posters for display in libraries, colleges, government buildings and houses of worship. It is developing a series of pre-retirement seminars for public and private employers.
The negative perception of aging starts early. A popular Boston Museum of Science exhibit takes photographs of children younger than 15 with an automatic camera. The camera displays on a monitor what the children might look like at intervals to age 69. The computer adds pouches, reddish skin, blotches and wrinkles to their features, and gray hair or baldness to their heads. No wonder the children said they felt it was "better" to be young. To be young is to be beautiful; to be old is to be ugly, by society's measure of our worth. But it needn't be.
Our current language of aging - words such as "seniors," "elderly," "retirement" and others - oversimplifies a complex reality. The Harvard School of Public Health and MetLife's 2004 report, "Reinventing Aging," says we need to find new language, imagery and stories to depict the role and value of older adults and the meaning and purpose of later life.
Nowhere can we find a better opportunity to change mind-sets about aging than by educating young people in the first third of life to develop an understanding and appreciation of the richness of life in the final third. Model aging curricula that integrate aspects of aging into every subject exist and are spearheaded by Generations United, Cornell University, Penn State and other universities. Long Island schools and colleges should educate children and young people about changes that occur with age, along with encouraging them to understand, respect and adjust to the lifelong process of making transitions and changes. The commission is taking steps to assist schools to incorporate aging education into their curricula. Libraries can sponsor educational events that bring older and younger people together to learn about their commonalities, not their differences.
Viewing aging as a period of vast opportunity may reduce aging anxiety in later life. A reduction in anxiety may lead to more positive health outcomes that produce lower health-care expenditures. In addition, actively recruiting older adults to participate in the work force is a way to reduce aging anxiety, for it demonstrates that society recognizes the value of older people in our economy. The commission is working with the County Department of Labor's One-Stop Employment Service to promote the employment of older adults through a marketing campaign.
We need to stress the wisdom, patience and other positive qualities associated with living longer. We can promote and reinforce a healthy association with aging filled with positive qualities to counteract the negative fears of growing older. Perhaps if older people themselves didn't view aging in a negative light, the rest of society might not do so, either.
*Paul Arfin is chairman of the Suffolk County Commission on Creative Retirement.
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