Redefining Old Age: A New Perspective on Aging

When Thinking About Aging

With healthcare in the United States advancing so rapidly, there are new ways to treat just about any kind of illness every day. With being able to treat illnesses in new ways, and also the advancement of medical equipment, comes the possibility of a lot more people living up into their 90’s, and maybe even getting to reach 100. The aging population, which keeps growing every so rapidly, will be using up a lot more sources as the years go by. This means, that we need to educate more doctors and nurses, etc., and also make more living facilities for older adults. The question that comes up in my mind, is when is “old” actually”. Most people stereotypically consider ages 75 and older old, but that doesn’t mean they are actually “old”, does it?

In my opinion I don’t think of 75 as old. In fact, I don’t think any age is “old” In fact I don’t think there should be average age limit in today’s society. So instead of age what do you use to determine if someone is old? I think that people’s health should reflect their “age” or how old they are. For example, to figure out someone’s health, you can ask question such as, are they still active, eating healthy, and are the cognitive skills still on point? Only when people start to stray from those requirements, and start to have deteriorated health, or the call themselves old, do I think that we then can say they are old. If they don’t meet that criteria however, then they are not old.

If you really think about it, society is already starting to stray away from the term “old”. Instead, people are calling 90 year olds 90 years young. Even in talk shows and just from talking to people in general, we see/ hear about 90 year olds doing yoga, running a business or do...

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... long term care and nursing homes are great places for older adults who don’t have family or who are in need of some extra care, such as rehabilitation for a broken bone or other illness. I think that they are good for a reasonable amount of time, but I don’t think people should have to die there. In some cases, yes, the older adult is very ill, has no family, or doesn’t have enough family to care for them, and needs to stay in the nursing home facility and they sometimes do die there, but that doesn’t mean they should. Unfortunately sometimes, it is the ending stop of some people’s lives and that is scary to think about because who wants to die in a hospital, or “hospital- like” setting?

So in conclusion, in this course I am looking forward to learning all about gerontology, how older adults function and how they feel when they are in those situations listed above.