She had not expected age to creep up on her so unexpectedly. Now that it had, she found herself at loose ends. Many things she had enjoyed were beyond her now.
Books, learning, teaching. Those things had always saved her. She saw the summer learning signs and the adults gathering.
She needed something to engage her. She wasn’t aging gracefully, but she had to try.
She’d always wanted to study anthropology. Maybe she could find a class and meet some people along the way.
A wave of hope washed over her as she walked toward them.
What is gerontology? Gerontology is the study of the social, cultural, behaviorial, health, and other aspects of aging and older adults. As the population ages, and the baby boomer generation is currently the older generation, the study of gerontology as a job gets increasingly popular. Gerontologists or geriatric specialists work in hospital settings and in private practice.
Gerontologists are advocates for older adults. The needs of older adults cannot just be lumped into one big category. They vary based on the health and gender of the individual. The needs of older individuals include transportation, medical care, living arrangements, legal needs, and nursing care, just to name a few. If you are an older adult and you have to enter a hospital, ask if they have a gerontologist on staff and have a meeting with that professional. You can also use the services of a gerontologist to help you plan during your older years. There may be gerontologists available for you, especially if you live in a larger community.
You can search for a geriatrics professional in your state in the U.S. by using this search engine. They can help you find an assisted living facility if that is what you want to do. They can also help you go through the process of moving into assisted living or even a rehab center or nursing home.
Take advantage of gerontology services when you are making plans. They can make the issues of aging more understandable and easier for you to navigate.
The relationships between generations of families is rapidly changing, not just in the U.S. but in much of the world. The generation that is aging right now is the baby boom generation. This generation changed a lot in the U.S. and in the rest of the world, The generations behind us are very different. The baby boom generation is actually where the attitudes starting changing about taking care of the elderly. Now, the generation behind us, those in their 40s, is called the “sandwich generation” because 40% of households in their 40s include both an elderly parent and children.
Often,the elderly (who are now usually the baby boom generation), don’t particularly want to live with their children. Illness may make it necessary. Money may also make it necessary. In the U.S., assisted living facilities and nursing homes are prohibitively expensive. Other cultures take care of their elderly far better than the U.S.
There are subcultures in the U.S. that still do feel a desire and a responsibility to take care of aging parents. One area where this subculture lives is the area where I live, Appalachia. You find many multigenerational families in my area of the world. In some other cultures in the U.S., children often live thousands of miles from where they grew up which doesn’t foster the ideal environment for a multigenerational family.
The elderly who have strong family ties often report a stronger immune system, less illness, improved mental and physical health, and a longer life overall. Work on your family relationships during your life so they will remain strong and supportive as you age. Check out government eldercare resources for very good information on family life and aging.
We tend to associate aging with cognitive decline. Cognitive decline is just a fancy term for dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. It can also refer to Mild Cognitive Decline which is not considered a form of dementia.
Age-related cognitive decline includes difficulty in finding the right word, slowness of thought, inability to multitask, problems with sustaining attention, and problems with retaining information. In this modern era, if a person exhibits the mildest of these symptoms, their family and doctors automatically jump to the conclusion that they have dementia. If you are worried about a loved one having some form of dementia, these are the symptoms they might be experiencing.
In my grandparent’s era, slowing down a bit mentality was just considered part of the natural process of aging. It was considered to be normal. Nothing to get excited about. Now, everyone wants a diagnosis, so they get slapped with a diagnosis of dementia when mild cognitive decline is, indeed, not dementia at all.
Here are some statistics to think about. Most people who are diagnosed with a form of dementia live in low to middle income countries. There are 55 million people worldwide who have been diagnosed with dementia with five million of those living in the United States. The country where the most dementia is present is Finland. The United Kingdom comes in second. Among developed countries, Japan comes in last. Dementia is on the rise particularly among disadvantaged countries and populations. The harder one has to live, the better the chance of dementia, it seems. People with chronic illnesses also tend to have more dementia.
Mild cognitive decline (MCI) is what most people experience as they age. Sometimes, MCI progresses into full-blown dementia, but often it does not. The symptoms of mild cognitive decline are brief problems with memory, judgment, and language. For example, you may forget where you park, forget your car keys. In the middle of a conversation, you may lose your train of thought or you may not be able to fully follow the conversation. You may get temporarily lost in a place you know well. Your judgment may not be as good as it has been in the past. These symptoms of MCI are nothing to panic about because they happen to almost all people who are aging, but you should report them to your doctor if they get to be particularly bad.
Theme: Aging: Slices of Life Past and Present; Aging Issues and Financial Concerns
Aging and Aerosmith
Welcome to The Write Scribe, my blog, where I will write about issues related to aging, along with slices of life past and present, during the 2024 A to Z Challenge! I look forward to reading your blog posts and enjoying your theme during this Challenge. You can find my A to Z 2024 Challenge posts under the Challenges category at the top of the front page. I invite you to read the posts as you wish and I look forward to your comments.
Since my theme starts with an “A,” I thought starting off with some general comments about aging, and more.
There is only one alternative to aging and we know what that is. Since I’m not done in this world yet, I’ve had to accept this fundamental truth and move on with this aging business. I’ll have to tell you that I’m doing it kicking and screaming and not very graciously.
Younger people ask if, as you get older, you feel any different? I guess my answer is that it depends. If you can stay well, you might answer this question in one way, but if not, your answer might be different. Anyone at any age can become ill. However, it gets more likely as you move into your 60s and 70s. Speaking for myself, I don’t feel much different than I did at 35 except, perhaps, a little (or a lot) wiser. If only the young could have the wisdom of the old! I’ve wished that for my younger self many times.
As you age, you feel like you become invisible in the American society. Other cultures take better care of their elderly. In America, it’s all about youth and the concerns of the young. The elderly, at least in the modern era, are pushed aside as irrelevant and just a bother by many. Some of that changed during the pandemic. Employers discovered that they could depend on older workers and since the pandemic, that opinion has remained, at least to some extent.
Most people who are aging want to stay in their own homes and continue to pursue their own interests without becoming a burden to their children. To me, it’s a shame that parents have to feel like a burden although if aging parents can stay in their own homes, that is often best.
There are a lot of people who are aging who feel lonely. By the time you reach your mid-60s and early 70s, you have lost much of your family and at least some of your friends. You may be widowed. You may not be interested in socializing as much as in the past because your interests have changed. Add that to the likelihood that your friends interests have also changed and there is loneliness.
Some of my interests have changed, but basically my core interests have remained the same. For example, I still love the same music and don’t really enjoy the music of recent generations. Aerosmith, a famous rock and roll band that began in the 1970s, is still going strong, and is still one of my favorite bands, now as well as when I was younger. Steven Tyler, the lead singer, is a talented musician who has lived a long and colorful life. If you’ve never heard Aerosmith and Steven Tyler, listen to his song “Dream On” and see what you think. It’s pretty indicative of the baby boomer generation and how we grew up. Conservative parents, more liberal friends, and lots and lots of what seemed then like innocent fun. For the most part, it was!
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