AGE ACTION Ireland puts it well. There needs to be a celebration of older age. Ageing has to be seen both in attitudes and policy as a valuable part of the journey through life. In older age we should be listened to, not ignored, encouraged to participate and not excluded. Older people should be mentors, advisers, guardians of the historical memory, and the societal glue between the generations. The contribution they have made should be lauded and there should be emphatic recognition of their continuing role.
For too long retirement age has been accepted as the time to go. Old age has been seen as the end of productive life. Men can find their elimination from the workforce unexpectedly difficult, particularly if they have allowed their occupations to define their personal identities. Women can be shook by the lack of recognition and overwhelming pressure of caring for loved ones, young and old. Wrinkles can be seen as synonymous with declining ability, fashion as a playground solely for the sexually vibrant.
Age Action therefore, like other groups representing the aged, wants to persuade the public and politicians that older age is not necessarily a burden and that it can often be an opportunity. They want to dispel the many negative perceptions. Older age is not about ill health, although such is more likely as we get older. Nor is it about reclusiveness and a failure to engage in wider society, although older people can be isolated and lonely. And it is certainly not a time when we lose human feeling, emotion, and the desire to love and be joyous.
This is why Positive Ageing Week is so important. It aims to dispel the myths about ageing and to allow a celebration, to be as Age Action says, a festival of rights’ recognition and enjoyment. It starts today and about 850 events are expected to take place around the country. These involve local voluntary groups, retirement groups, libraries, nursing homes, commercial organisations and individual older people.
However, issues about ageing will soon move from the celebratory to the adversarial as ageing groups seek to defend the State pension from budgetary cuts. The conundrum is whether this category can successfully persuade the Government – as a matter of right and irrespective of income – that it should be excluded from any cuts in benefits and services. Ageing sector representatives have already shown that they have the mettle for such a battle and the Government can expect a similarly stout defence of rights previously won.