Maria Celeste Raposo : About “aging in place”

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By Maria Celeste Raposo,
Sociologist

This is a very interesting
matter and certainly a hot one for discussion. I have been studying this matter
for about 8 years and here are my conclusions :


I don’t agree with a simple staying-in place, because :

  • If one grows over 85,
    it’s very common not having relatives and having lost their best friends or,
    at least, being unable to meet them, due to several disabilities. They can
    hardly contact by phone. So, there is a need to establish new relationships
    and look for a friendly and protecting neighbourhood.
  • The old neighbours either
    moved or died. Usually older people live exactly in the older and sometimes
    more derelict parts of the cities, far from the new generations, that have
    chosen new places, where the offer for new and comfortable houses is bigger.
    So, they tend to become isolated, exactly because they live in older parts
    of their towns or cities. Cities and city centers do change, and if people
    don’t, they become isolated and the worst of all, subject to hostile or dangerous
    environment.
  • The help that can be
    given by caring centers who visit them at their homes, supplying meals and
    some other services, like helping to wash if needed , is difficult, expensive,
    for the welfare states and very limited. Those caring people have many houses
    to visit and a very short time to do it. So, what they in fact do, is feeding
    the poor fellows more or less as if they are some esteemed pets.
  • Over 65s prefer to stay
    at their homes as long as they can, but they have to understand that, probably,
    they must change home, to be able to receive the help that they know they
    will need if they live longer.
  • If they belong to an
    association and live in their homes, but near to other people of the same
    age or similar, they have much more possibilities of getting involved with
    community affairs and of joining forces to overcome some difficulties –
    they usually have lost social power, but when together, they help themselves
    to reach those still in power, because someone among them, was a teacher or
    is a grandfather or a friend, of someone younger and able to decide something.
  • So, they want to keep
    their homes (although accepting that these will be simpler and smaller), they
    want to keep their autonomy for as long as possible, but they need to live
    near other fellows who have the same needs and they need to be associated.
  • Just remember the recent
    case of the 104 years old millionaire Brooke Astor, who became a scandal of
    isolation and bad treatment – it’s not only a question of money, but
    a real human rights or exclusion problem. The only possible protection comes
    from association.
  • Governments seem to
    be very interested in stimulating the simple living-in. Probably it looks
    as the most economic solution, but in fact, the most economic way is to keep
    people happy and, as a result, also healthy.

Ideal solutions do not
exist but better ones do.

By Maria Celeste Raposo,
Sociologist

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