Gerontology: What is it and why is it important?

gerontology is a study of sociological psychological and biological aspects of Aging its annalistic field encompassing the individual society and the environment as well as the interaction between those three because of the wide-ranging ethos gerontology and gerontologists have a huge role in society today so they can be employed in diverse fields such as leisure tourism broadcasting as well as traditional roots such as academic research and lecturers at universities aging in itself is not happening in a silo nor is it constrained to only Western societies it is anticipated that by 2050 there will be over 2 billion people aged 60 and over and in the UK alone this number is expected to exceed 19 million so with this comes a range of opportunities and not just the issues and problems associated with populist media these opportunities take the form of both civic and social engagement but we also have to remember that older people are in and of themselves a consumer group a consumer group who are becoming more savvy and a consumer group to whose needs we have to meet but to meet these needs we have to box clever and this includes but is not limited to just education we have to make sure that the needs and wants of older adults are understood we're not looking to scare monger with statistics around dementia or stereotypes of frailty but we have to highlight the contributions of older adults to society and the way in which we can engage rather than marginalize them but why is it important to understand the needs of our adults well in 2010 people over the age of 65 in the UK made a contribution to the economy exceeding 41 billion pounds and this is a trend that's increasing year-on-year their contributions are many and varied including spending power taxation and social support over 1 million adults over the age of 65 are currently working in the UK so it's important to also rethink the workplace we need to encourage lifelong learning helping older adults to develop new skills and stay in the workplace for longer training and development and now no longer preserves of the younger employees in the community itself the aging population provides the opportunity to reinvent creating more social cohesion for the benefit of all the frontline is now no longer the GP nor the health visitor or the social worker and neither should it be these are now the shop workers the local amenity staff and the next-door neighbor is these people with increased support and increased training who can spot the early signs of dementia enabling assistance to be put in place allowing all the people to live in their own homes for longer supported and maintaining their independence the over 65s represents an emerging market for business they're not in a modernist group and they don't necessarily want the same things we have to look at design through the eyes of an older adult to understand what it is that they want not just what they need businesses are starting to react to this market understanding that good design is fundamental irrespective of age but it's not about shifting the responsibility onto the shoulders of the community and/or onto gerontologists old people themselves have responsibility to create a more positive image about old age having a need for support is not a weakness it can be part of an aging process where an older person can compensate for losses and actively increase their skill sets to ensure they stay engaged part of this engagement is about empowering older adults to use social media and mobile technologies to facilitate enrich their daily lives the aging population is not an abstract concept it's very much something that's happening and it's happening now there are major risks not only for the current generation of older adults but for generations to come if we don't grasp the challenges and create opportunities with them you

Channel: AgeingBites

Views: 10,342

Keywords: Gerontology, discourses of ageing, education, multi-disciplinary, Research

Id: XT4vy07pIsE

Length: 4min 37sec (277 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 15 2014