AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Auto-enrolment came in earlier this month, copper-fastening pension contributions and drawing attention to that arbitrary line drawn across our later lives. There are around one thousand people every week in Ireland tumbling over that cliff edge called retirement. Currently there are a million of us in that ‘old’ bracket, and in 20 years that figure will double to one in every four of the population.
Reading the Government’s Future Forty scenarios, you would think that this changing demographic profile – i.e. all us oldies – is going to beggar the country as more of us age out of the labour force. There are dire predictions about the consequences of rising costs of pensions and health care, diminished services, and reduced living standards among them.
Well, sorry, I am not going to take that lying down on a La-Z-Boy recliner like Independent TD Kenneth O’Flynn. For one thing, it prompted thoughts about positive ageing to cushion this demographic train smash, rather than being a burden on the State. In other words, how to be old?
This is a relatively new question. If I had been born a century ago, I might have expected to live 30 years less. Today, we are ageing differently and it’s a game we are still getting to grips with. Among people to ask the question, Nora Ephron wrote I Feel Bad About My Neck, her witty book about being a woman and ageing. Lyn Slater’s book How to Be Old, written after she turned 60 and became an accidental influencer, was more prescriptive. “I don’t view each birthday as a lost year of youth but as a new stage of opportunity.”
Great, but a lot of her content, like so much out there about growing older as a woman, has to do with appearance. In my book – the one I haven’t written yet – it has to do with so much more than that, especially the way that we think. Being positive has an amazing effect; optimists live longer, have better resistance to illness, and it doesn’t cost anything. Staying active and involved has huge benefits too, and so does having something to live for – in other words, a purpose, whether great or small. I like the idea of living Boldly rather than oldly; putting that B in front conjures different connotations.
There is plenty we can do to take responsibility for ourselves, but what about the Government’s response to an incoming tide which was hardly unforeseen? The National Positive Ageing Strategy (2013–17) resulted in small changes, mainly at community level. The Housing for All paper had just one page devoted to the needs of elders, while support for ageing in place is inadequate.
A few crumbs have been thrown to oldies, usually for expedient reasons. Working until 70 for those who wish (lessening pensioner numbers), a grant to divide homes into flats (helping to solve the housing crisis), and so on. But what about graduated retirement, retraining to keep skills updated, or strategies for helping to keep us happy, healthy, and socially connected?
What about the effect on older people of being repeatedly seen as a burden on the State? Trinity’s Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) found that older people who took negative views of ageing experienced a decline in physical and cognitive health. In other words, if you think old, you will be older.
Ian Robertson, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at TCD, says the theory that ageing is a process of inevitable mental decline is out of date. “It’s a virus which affects our brain and leads us to underestimate our abilities. It’s an enormous waste of potential.”
A recent IMF study based on 41 countries showed that mental capacity has improved by 20 years in two decades. Seventy really is the new 50.
See off that ageist virus and there is no reason, if mature folk take responsibility for themselves and stay involved, active, and fit, why they can’t be Super Agers. Ever notice the number of super agers there are among creative people? That’s because they can keep on keeping on. We need more flexible policy towards retirement and more positive attitudes, where the older generation can be seen as contributing – and they do, caring for grandchildren, volunteering, running businesses, and being creative – rather than as a burden.
