The Ready for Ageing Alliance – a new charity sector coalition

We note and welcome a new coalition, The Ready for Ageing Alliance, formed to increase the pressure on Government and all political parties to face up to the major changes and challenges from our rapidly ageing society.

Like other commentators we wish it every good fortune but we have reservations. Some of those reservations have been adequately expressed elsewhere and we link you below to Dick Stroud’s excellent blog 50-Plus Marketing on the subject.

http://20plus30.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/ready-for-ageing-alliance-will-it-make.html

We have long been asking for some statesmanlike approach to the subject of growing older but have seen very little so far. Indeed only this week we have seen major press coverage devoted to the exceedingly trivial issue of who should or should not receive free bus passes and TV licences. This does no credit to the media nor to the politicians involved but does highlight the very poor level of debate currently taking place.

Although the participating bodies in this new alliance are all much esteemed they do, in my opinion, have a fatal weakness – they are mainly concerned with today’s existing old, not tomorrow’s. As such they do not feature all that highly in most people’s consciousness.

The real way to get people involved in ageing issues is to make today’s young realise that this is coming for them, like it or not, and any change now will be for their benefit. And if they want improvement they must take personal and collective responsibility for their futures. Therefore, I would argue for a somewhat different mix of pressure groups to extend the sphere of influence.

What becomes of Previously Important Persons?

Catching up on a blog by Mark Freedman (of Encore Careers fame) in the Harvard Business Review, I was intrigued to read his comment: “A former high-ranking media executive I met recently described himself as a new member of the PIP Squad — Previously Important Persons.”

It underlined what we all know – that to retire is to lose one’s importance and to become invisible in the eyes of the world. Ask any older person you meet what they do and it’s almost certain that if they say they’re retired they will immediately qualify it by addiing “but I used to be…..”  In short, they are a PIP.

PIP status isn’t linked to grade and salary achieved. A person didn’t have to be a big cheese, chairman or professional in their career. Whatever their level, what they were was someone who was important in the eyes of the world by virtue of their place as a contributing, valued individual.

Retirement strips people of that value and recognition. Above and beyond financial reward, it is what drives many to want to keep on working.

Mark Freedman’s blog: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/outsourcing_the_old_folks.html

Budget blues

It has always seemed to me a great pity that politicians and business leaders never seem to take the big and painful decisions at the right time – that is when times are good, rather than when times are bad and they are no longer in control of the process. Oh for a few farsighted statesmen rather than the short-termists we always seem to get, concerned only with their own immediate impact and survival.

And so it is now with the various measures being taken to deal with the issues surrounding a large and growing older population. The Budget just announced has come in for a lot of criticism, as they all do, in particular this time with regard to pensions and pensioners. But the concerns driving some of the current measures have been coming for decades and nobody was prepared to tackle them at the appropriate time. And so they have to be addressed now, at a time when any measure is going to be painful for someone, whether it is the young, the “squeezed middle” or the older population. In the end the pain will have to be shared around and we can only hope that such pain will, in the long run, be less here than in some other countries.

So let us stand back a moment and look at the bigger and longer term scenario, one that will quite definitely not go away of its own accord. There are certain things about matters related to demographics – they have the weight of numbers on their side and you can see them coming a long way off.

The first thing is that the population as a whole is living much longer than it used to. Living longer is generally a good thing, provided we can address the issues surrounding health, personal financial well-being, and a reason to get up in the morning. Living longer is something that will affect everyone, the young, the middle-aged and the elderly and so measures must be put in place to prepare everyone for later life, in an environment in which government funding is not a bottomless pit. After all, the money comes from us – we give with one hand we take with the other.

Therefore living longer (a good thing) implies working longer and/or saving more. And so state pension age will have to increase alongside increasing longevity, not only for financial reasons but for an individual’s feeling of value and worth and for the social interaction work brings. With this must come the ability to stay in work longer, in terms of health, the work environment itself and the right to continued employment.

And for those with some way to go to retirement, saving must be seen as a worthwhile venture. For some years there has been a powerful lobby suggesting there be an adequate universal pension for everyone, removing the excuse that saving is not worthwhile because with means testing later on you might as well spend it now rather than save it. This is being put in place. What we now need are some worthwhile savings mechanisms. They too, hopefully, are coming.

It is quite possible to argue about the fairness of the transition arrangements, for all sectors of the population not just pensioners, but directionally I believe that we are now beginning to see some progress.

 

 

 

 

The reality of managerial redundancy?

I’ve only just got round to viewing the surprisingly good 2010 US film The Company Men starring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner.

The story focuses on a year in the life of three men trying to survive the fallout of joblessness resulting from a round of corporate downsizing at a major US company – and how that affects them, their families, and their communities.

Most poignant of the three is the role played by Chris Cooper, that of a middle manager who has risen from the factory floors to the corporate offices. He also loses his six-figure salary job, but because of his age finds himself up against corporate ageism and ultimately unemployable.

Although the film can be criticized for its overly optimistic “happy ever after” ending, the rest of it is nevertheless to be recommended as a clear and surprisingly grounded reflection of the reality of working – or non-working – life for many people today and the values and choices underpinning it.

For further information about the film go to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172991/

Grown up actors for grown up audiences

A host of Hollywood stars set a great example of what it looks like to be older today at the AARP The Magazine Movies for Grown-Ups Awards held recently at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles.

Veteran actors, male and female were out in force to show their support at the prize-giving ceremony, which honoured the best of Tinseltown’s older stars.

Pictures of stars such as Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Janet McTeer and Glenn Close underlined that in terms of both ability and elegance, older actors are still very much at the top of their game. Let’s hope writers and producers are smart enough to realise and address the still largely untapped potential for films for grown-ups, featuring grown-ups.

 
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2097542/Sharon-Stone-Meryl-Streep-Glenn-Close-age-grace-awards-bash-veteran-movie-stars.html#ixzz1lms6HpaS

Do you want it fast or do you want it right?

A recent report in Scientific American leads one to conclude that older people might be better going for speed rather than accuracy in workplace decision making in order to refute ageist stereotypes about declining performance.

Apparently scientists administered over 60 visual tests to both undergraduates and adults. In one, a computer screen showed an array of asterisks and the subjects had to choose as fast as they could whether there were between 31 and 50 or between 51 and 70. In a second test, the subjects saw a string of letters and had to quickly decide whether the letters spelled a real English word or not.

The researchers found little difference in accuracy between the younger and older subjects, although undergraduates had significantly faster response times. But the older participants’ slower response times were not all the result of a decline in skills. In other tests, the older subjects were encouraged to decide faster, and their response times greatly decreased with hardly any loss of accuracy.

The researchers think that a greater desire to avoid mistakes therefore may make the elderly (“older folks” as they are charmingly termed) more deliberate. Or, one wonders, is it a generational thing – a result of having the old adage: More haste less speed drummed into us from an early age?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-elderly-react-slowly-because-th-11-12-31

Well enough to work?

An interesting session was hosted in London on Tuesday by the International Longevity Centre (ILC): Older workers, health and employment. While nothing overwhelmingly new came out of it, the keynote speech by Dame Carol Black in particular on trends in the health of older workers nevertheless created an impact.

Although, as she pointed out, one in four of us born today can expect to live to 100, the factors mitigating that in terms of our own poor health are startling. As the fourth fattest nation in the world we are facing a situation where 40% of all UK adults will be obese by 2025 and three quarters of the population will be too ill to work to the projected retirement age of 68.

Her presentation clearly underlined Abraham Lincoln’s point that “It’s not the years in your life that count but the life in your years”. The spectre of so many of us living longer in ill health and disability is an appalling prospect at every level – individual, societal and economic – and tantamount to a total disaster.

In the main the session focused on what employers can or could do to help the situation through health and wellbeing programmes and what these might encompass. Little mention was given of individual responsibility and how, rather ironically in light of this topic, you can lead a horse to water…

Realistically lack of knowledge about lifestyle habits and their effects generally isn’t the problem, and neither is lack of employer support. What is the problem is lack of motivation, good role models and a realistic understanding of the consequences of our actions (or inaction).

If those of us “in the know” in the ageing arena can be startled by such figures, surely a well-produced TV documentary series would have considerable impact on the man (and woman) in the street?

Stating the b******* obvious

A report in today’s Daily Mail says that people should only be counted as elderly once they reach the age of 75.

The article is based on a report by the charity the City Bridge Trust developed with the help of what the DM calls “Labour-leaning think-tank” the Institute for Public Policy Research.

“75 is the new 65”, it says. “Many in the traditional pensioner age group – those over 65 – continue to lead lives similar to those of younger middle-aged people.”

The report said that efforts to help the vulnerable elderly should be adjusted and “a simple but blunt way of targeting those most at risk could be to focus on the over 75 age group rather than the over 65 group as most programmes and benefits currently do.”

I hope in these straitened times that it didn’t cost too much to produce this report.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047683/Why-youre-really-old-youve-hit-75-pensioners-continue-live-like-middle-age.html#ixzz1aSTLSqgh

So how old is older?

Two recent developments in the “older” marketplace accentuated a persistent problem which the great and the good seem blithely happy to overlook (aren’t they listening? We have highlighted it many times previously …).

First, The BIG Lottery Fund last week announced it was to make its biggest single investment in older people with a £110 million package of Lottery funding to be used on voluntary and community initiatives.

Second, the government – through the DWP –launched The Age Action Alliance, an initiative designed to “improve the lives of older people and help transform communities into better places to grow older”. 

The latter initiative was launched to coincide with Older People’s Day – in itself a third example of the problem.

The press releases announcing these initiatives are both littered with the phrase “older people” with no explanation as to who exactly this means. Only a statement from the Daily Mail – which is helping promote the Big Lottery fund handouts – threw light on the situation by referring to its “previous campaigns on behalf of the elderly”.

In general parlance it is recognized that the phrase “older people” relates to anyone over about 50. Yet the 50 -70 age group is a whole generation below today’s “elderly” population and has a vastly different – although arguably equally pressing – set of needs.

Our requirement for a new vocabulary to clarify who exactly we’re talking about couldn’t be more urgent. Using a blanket term such as “older” in relation to today’s demographics meets no one’s needs at all.  

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_silver_dreams_fund.htm?regioncode=-uk

http://ageactionalliance.org/

 

 

 

Reinventing not rusting

I was delighted to come across the following slogan describing the new approach to active, productive retirement: “If you rest you rust”.

In a few succinct words it exactly describes the perils of slowing down, giving up and ceasing to be active in later life.

Ageing and retirement shouldn’t represent a ‘more of the same’ scenario for anyone. While it’s understandable to want to take a somewhat more measured pace to life and work than in the past, retirement today should focus more on reinvention than rest.

Doing something enjoyable is stimulating and energising. Finding and pursuing what that is in order to avoid the physical and mental symptoms of slowly rusting away must be our number one priority in later life. 

Being older in our time?

Who remembers the TV documentary series Seven Up, arguably one of the first reality TV shows? The idea on which it was based was simple but radical: to follow 14 children from across society from their first appearance at age seven, revisiting them every seven years as they progressed through life.

Launched in 1963 by Granada Television, the first programme was followed by 7 Plus Seven in 1970, 21 Up in ’77, 28 Up in ’84, 35 Up in ’91, 42 Up in ’99 and 49 Up in 2006.  

The series asked the children (and later their adult selves) about their lives and their dreams for the future and examined how these developed or changed every seven years.

The reason for making the initial programme, according to the series’ director Michael Apted, was that “the early sixties was a time of radical social change when there were all these questions about whether English society was going through serious volcanic changes with the Wilson government and the cultural revolution as it were, you know, with The Beatles, The Stones, Mary Quant and all that”.

Over the years the changes that occurred to the original 14 (some of whom dropped out of the project) were fascinating and often tragic. Success, failure, marriage and childbirth, poverty, illness – almost every possible facet of the human experience was revealed.

Now, as longevity, technology and globalization are arguably heralding a new period of social change, it would be great to repeat the experiment starting with a group of individuals aged 49. Not the same ones as in Seven Up (their life experiences will have been affected too greatly by their involvement in the programme), but a new and diverse group of individuals representing all facets of contemporary British society.

Such a programme would be a fascinating way to explore what it means to be older in twenty-first century Britain and to see how people’s views of what their old age will be like and what they would and wouldn’t like to see happen actually develop.

At a time when our society still lumps together “older people” asone fiftyyear cohort, it would be a hugely enlightening way of examining the intricacies of ageing.

 

Old attitudes towards age

Ageist stereotypes are alive and well according to a recent depressing survey from financial services company Engage Mutual. They conducted a study with 2,000 people of all ages in Great Britain looking at perceptions of age and what people think are the ‘give-aways’ of getting old.

The top three signs of ageing highlighted by the poll were: falling asleep in front of the television, feeling stiff, and groaning when you bend down. Others included struggling to use technology, choosing clothes and shoes for comfort rather than style, and starting to drive very slowly.

Although some indicators such as forgetting people’s names, and losing hair (baldness) – while at the same time becoming more hairy (ears, face, eyebrows, nose etc.) – are regrettably unavoidable, the majority of the factors are behavioural. They can be overturned by older people making the effort to do things differently such as stopping groaning when you bend down/stand up, not talking about “senior moments”, and ceasing unnecessary complaining.

Why should we? Well, it would be good to pass this off as a light-hearted survey of older people’s charming idiosyncracies (perhaps no 21 was lacking a sense of humour about ageing?) –  but unfortunately the problem goes deeper than that.

If people of all ages still think of older people in these terms (including older people themselves), no wonder our prospects on the job market are so poor.

top 20 signs of getting old

1.       falling asleep in front of the television

2.       feeling stiff

3.       groaning when you bend down

4.       losing your hair

5.       hating noisy pubs

6.       thinking teachers / policemen / doctors look really young

7.       becoming more hairy – ears, face, eyebrows, nose etc.

8.       struggling to use technology

9.       forgetting people’s names

10.   not knowing any songs in the top 10

11.   choosing clothes and shoes for comfort rather than style

12.   you start driving very slowly

13.   drinking sherry

14.   when you start complaining more about things

15.   joining the Women’s Institute

16.   misplacing your glasses / bag / car keys

17.   you talk to colleagues who are so young they don’t know what an opal fruit is

18.   listening to the Archers

19.   moving from Radio One to Radio Two

20.   allowing yourself a mid-afternoon nap