The Future of Human Healthspan Demography, Evolution, Medicine, and Bioengineering: Task Group Summaries (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Changes in Social Contexts to Enhance Functional Status of the Elderly
Changes in Social Contexts to Enhance Functional Status of the Elderly
Pages 49-56
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From page 49... ...
Yet across the same time period there have been relatively few systematic applications of technology and science, including social science, aimed at improving subjective well-being across eight, nine, and even ten decades of life. Indeed, most technological advances currently on the horizon are designed to compensate for age-related impairments like cardiac disease and cognitive decline rather than to improve subjective well-being.
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From page 50... ...
Federal entitlement programs have changed little since their inception despite increases in average life expectancy. Regulations surrounding Social Security have remained largely unchanged, implicitly presuming that people should work for 40 years, and then retire for decades.
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From page 51... ...
Families are morphing from horizontal shapes with many siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles to more vertical family forms. Can technologies strengthen family relations across generations and geographical distances?
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From page 52... ...
An Aging Society Requires Social Plasticity After three days of discussion, this task group started their presentation with a joke from the movie The Graduate and a nod to ideas introduced in the keynote address just days before. People are living longer, said group spokesperson Kenneth Langa, but they're living those longer lives according to an outdated set of social norms.
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From page 53... ...
can reroute to use other circuits." So even without knowing how and if the formal education process is directly responsible for functional enhancement, public policy decisions that make higher education available to people of any age might be a good place to start, suggested Greg O'Neill, group leader and director of the National Academy on an Aging Society. The group discussed several factors that make accessing education at older ages difficult, including transportation issues and the social stigma of attending school as an adult.
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From page 54... ...
Brian Hofland, program director of the international aging team of the Atlantic Philanthropies Incorporated, spoke up, explaining that programs do exist to serve that purpose. For example, he said, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, Illinois, has a program called Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLA)
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From page 55... ...
Alternatively, a new type of intergenerational living group, or urban housing center, for the elderly might help older adults remain socially engaged even if their families live far away. But just like the examples that the group had discussed previously, technological innovations and alternative living arrangements have not been assessed for their potential as tools that help the elderly maintain their subjective well-being.
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From page 56... ...
Overall, the group suggested that our social structures need greater plasticity so that they can better meet the needs of both our aging society as a whole and the needs of individuals as they grow and change. Organizations that are already working toward this kind of plasticity must be recognized and encouraged if we want to see an increased human healthspan and push the limits of human health.
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