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Marie N. had been a constant visitor at the outpatient clinic, year after year. She was as demanding as she was fearful, and her complaints about her aches and pains changed almost with every visit. The medical and nursing staff, like her neighbors and friends, adjusted to her. She was old and alone and unhappy; so they understood.

Then a physician got her to visit a senior citizen's center. She met new people to whom she could talk about her health. She returned to the center again and again, and visited the clinic less and less. In six months she stopped going to the clinic altogether.

THE PROBLEM

Enforced retirement deprives the aging of an all-important source of self-expression-work: cuts off their feeling of belonging; ends their sense of recognition; introduces loneliness; and exposes them to a wide variety of physical and mental illnesses.

One of the blocks to dealing with their problem is the mistaken belief that leisure-time activities are no more than mere fun-making. Loss of the feeling of usefulness, of meaningful employment of one's time, of doing something worth-while-these assail the confidence and the self-respect of the idle aging.

In a work-centered society like ours, a person who is rendered economically and socially ineffective by arbitrary retirement also loses his status in the community. He becomes a has-been. The satisfactions of citizen-participation are gradually denied him.

Unless he or she is an unusually resourceful individual, the aging retiree may find the "added extra third of life" a crushing burden of boredom and, what is worse, of ill health. One report The States and Their Older Citizens- sums up the problem this way:

"Retirement constitutes a crisis for many older people. It is a strange and uncharted land for the great majority of newcomers into it. They are, usually, unprepared for the changes they encounter. Their incomes are reduced to

one-half or less of the amounts they had before retirement. They lose the friends they worked with on the job. As retired persons they may suffer a loss of status in the community and in the social groups of which they are members. For the first time in their adult lives, they have free time on their hands, and often they do not know what to do with it."

THE RECOMMENDATIONS

All sessions on free-time activities demonstrated general agreement on the importance of recreational programs as a means of helping older men and women live their free hours as abundantly as their capacities permit. Also, there was understanding of the relationship between recreation and the well-being of the individual.

There was awareness of the many values of day center and similar community programs that provide opportunities for education, recreation, voluntary services, citizen participation, and counseling. It was also seen that the need for outlet of the experience and know-how of the aging could be found in education by the aging of the youth and younger adults in

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"Recreation is a basic human need. There is now general acceptance of the fact that the healthy, daily living of people of all ages demands a balance between work and play, between rest and exercise and a purposeful and intelligent use of leisure time."

New York State Education Department

the older people's professions, trades, or hobbies, or civic work in hospitals, schools, churches, and other community institutions.

The leisure-time problems of homebound persons and those in institutions were also considered by the regional meeting participants, who decided that the plight of many of these individuals required attention and action, as did the situation of individuals who lived in rural areas. An experienced observer reports: "In all of the sessions there was a genuine concern over the fact that few, if any, communities give all-out stimulation and direction for use of some of the time and skills of retired men and women in service to the community. This... is a loss to the individual and even greater loss to the community."

The State Committee deliberated on these problems and adopted the following recommendations:

General

77. To help men and women develop to the fullest their potentialities and their continued emotional and intellectual growth throughout life, adult education should be strengthened as the third level of public school education and given the necessary State and local support

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79. Recreational programs should be established in nursing and convalescent homes for the aged and in hospitals for the chronically ill and handicapped.

80. To spark the development of recreational programs on radio and television, the State Education Department should take the responsibility for developing materials with educational content, as well as adult education classes, that can be readily used by local radio and television stations.

81. It is recommended that the present law governing State aid to the elderly for recreation, be extended to include villages as well as cities and towns that are now being aided. Local Level

82. It is recommended that adequate funds be provided on the local level, by both school boards and municipalities, to provide needed programs of education and recreation for senior citizens; and further, that the State encourage, stimulate, and promote inclusion of such funds in the local school district and governmental budgets; and further, that citizens in local communities support the efforts of school boards and local governments to provide such funds.

83. It is recommended that every community be encouraged to work toward a multi-purpose day center which will attract more people by its diversified, rich program, varied enough to meet the needs of all existing groups. It is also recommended that each group maintain its identity.

84. Communities which are served by a public system of transportation should make every effort to persuade such systems to offer transportation services to members of activity programs for the aged at reduced rates in much the same fashion as reduced fares are granted to children going to school.

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"Recreation is the tool of the gerontologist, the ally of the geriatrician and social worker, and the hope of many of the aged. Recreation for the aged may prove to be the cheapest, most productive investment a people can make in restoring the dignity and usefulness of oldsters whose place in society has become precarious before the onrush of so-called civilized society."

Albert J. Abrams, former Consultant,
New York State Joint Legislative
Committee on Problems of the Aging

"Life has meaning to the degree that we make the most of our abilities and talents and our opportunities for self-development, pleasure

and achievement."

George Lawton, M.D.

EDUCATION

chapter 6

Bill T. had looked forward with pleasure and excitement to retirement-a period of ease and fun after a lifetime of hard work.

But, suddenly deprived of all routine daily activity and contact with the outside world, and not knowing how to fill the many long, empty hours of idieness, he found that retirement began to look like disaster to him. And not only to him, but to his wife, Louise, as well-for she had him and his unhappiness to put up with all day.

A teacher-nephew helped resolve the aged couple's problem by getting both of them to enroll in an adult-education course in something they liked to do-refinish furniture.

Through the stimulation and guidance of the course, the T.'s widened and deepened their interest and developed their craftsmanship to the point where both of them became busy, happy people with a small business of their own.

THE PROBLEM

As indicated in the earlier chapter on FreeTime Activities, idleness can be a major disease of the aged, a sickness that destroys health and happiness, for activity is essential to the well-being of all people. Many aged are cut off from long-established patterns of daily work and suddenly face years of enforced, corroding idleness. Activity is indispensable for a successful old age because retirement must repre

"Meeting the needs of a growing population of older citizens also requires that the public be informed so that they make wise decisions in community planning for the aging."

Henrietta F. Rabe

New York State Education Department

sent opportunities for satisfying, useful, and enjoyable pursuits.

Aging becomes a serious problem when it means interruption of the life-long process of self-development and self-realization because of retirement; when it means the end of one career and not the beginning of another; when it does not provide for supplementing income, when that is necessary; and when it does not provide for developing new interests and for growing-emotionally and intellectually.

Another problem, one that affects not only the aged but all of us, is lack of knowledge about aging. For example, many aged suffer from afflictions that might have been prevented through education on how to avoid physical and mental illnesses, nutritional deficiencies, chronic ailments, and premature aging.

Another serious problem is lack of commu. nity knowledge of the problems and implications of aging. One reason why the needs of the aging are not being met adequately, and why the community is not now protecting itself against preventable losses in production and avoidable expenditures for dependency, is that wise decisions in planning for the aged cannot be made without basic knowledge of the facts on aging and what those facts mean. Such knowledge should be brought to bear upon legislative proposals, for instance, and upon existing negative attitudes toward old age.

Thus both the individual aged person and the community at large suffer from lack of education-the first from too little information on how to prepare for old age and how to use education in old age to make the added years worth-while; and the latter from inadequate guidance on aging, its problems, and what to do about them.

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THE RECOMMENDATIONS

In considering these and other problems. discussants in all the regional-meeting workshops on education agreed that educational institutions should gear their programs to reach and to serve the aging of today and the aging of tomorrow.

Another major point made was that the present public image of the middle-aged and the aged should be changed because these images are responsible for "existing employment and retirement practices militating against the aging: the lack of status of age in our society: and the self-defeating attitude often found in the older person himself."

In weighing the problem of lack of professional training of personnel to operate services for the aging, it was suggested that colleges and universities be encouraged to establish studies leading to a degree in social gerontol

ogy.

To meet problems of aging identified with education, the State Committee adopted the following recommendations:

General

85. The creation of a more enlightened community and governmental environment for the better understanding of the problems on aging is needed.

86. Use of the mass media is recommended to point up the needs of, and existing resources for. the aging.

87. Schools and universities have an important educational role in developing a wholesome understanding of the aging process, and in

preparing people for the enjoyments and hazards of the later years.

88. It is important to make our school children conscious of the fact that older people are not a people apart but an integral part of our society, with important functions to discharge to that society. This concept might be brought home to our children by introducing material focusing on this objective in our social studies.

89. We recommend evolvement of a concrete step-by-step plan for preparation for retirement by utilizing the special skills of education, medicine, social work, industry, and so forth, so as to make the plan effective and pertinent to the total life process. 90. Facilities should be available to retrain older workers who have lost their jobs due to changes in methods of production so that they may acquire new skills sought by employers.

State Level

91. To further in-service training opportunities for leaders of existing activity programs for the elderly, it is recommended that the State Education Department and other interested agencies make every effort to continue to make such opportunities available on a periodic basis.

Local Level

92. Every community should have an information referral and counseling service for the aging.

93. Social, religious, and service organizations should encourage their members to go into in-service training groups to understand the older people and function as volunteers in educational and recreational programs.

..the present public image of the middleaged and the aged should be changed because these images are responsible for 'existing employment and retirement practices militating against the aging': the lack of status of age in our society; and the self-defeating attitude often found in the older person himself."

"We need to grow in flexibility. It's ironic that just at the time when we'd like to settle comfortably down into ruts, we have to change our housing, we should change our diets, we have to change our clothes and method of dressing, we have to change our recreation, everything in our lives, even our type of friends. This is a great problem and therefore we have to make an effort to constantly be meeting new people, to do things in different ways, to learn new skills, to go out of our way to visit somebody of a different race, a different nationality, to keep ourselves flexible. I made a speech somewhat to this effect to a group of golden-agers and after the meeting one very timid little woman came up and said, 'Just for the devil of it, I'm going to cook my potato in a different pot tonight."

Belle Boone Beard, Ph.D.

chapter 7

"Only religion can say what is supremely worthwhile."

1950 National Conference on Aging

RELIGION

The bereft old man forgotten in a dingy hall-bedroom; the frightened aged woman facing a terminal illness alone in a hospital; the aging couple in the strange surrounding of an institution, cut off from a lifetime of church-going-these are some of the situations that the acute inner need for spiritual solace and guidance emphasizes.

THE PROBLEM

As the material acquisitions of life become less necessary and less meaningful, the spiritual significance of human existence becomes more apparent. To be deprived of opportunities to attend church or synagogue, or to be denied visits, by force of circumstances, from one's spiritual adviser, constitutes a crisis for the

aging. They know the gifts and benefits of faith, especially when one is afflicted with infirmities and pain and has suffered the losses that usually accompany old age.

Many institutions for the aging do not have adequate chaplain services. Distance, transportation, and other difficulties sometimes mean that contact between clergymen and aged members of their congregations are not maintained when the aged are home-bound in nursing homes or in other facilities.

Income, health care, housing, and other matters are of urgent importance to the aging, but the opportunity to practice one's faith and to satisfy the deep hunger of the spirit is no less urgent a need.

"All religions of whatever faith have a unique
opportunity to serve the aged because of their
inherent and common belief in the importance
of the individual spirit in the universal scheme.
Indeed, the churches today are the only organ-
ized elements in our society which place a
prime value on the individual as an ethical and
moral human being quite aside from his ac-
complishment or lack of accomplishment in
the realm of financial success or public esteem.
For the aged, all of whom necessarily experi-
ence to some degree loss of spouse, relatives,
friends, loss of work and the accompanying
prestige, a lowering of physical ability, and
perhaps mental ability, religion can be the
most constructive force in preserving or restor-
ing their self-respect and supplying motivation
for continued living."

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Clark Tibbetts

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