Neccessary Adaptations for an Aging Population Essay

In Josh Barro’s article, he mainly discusses the theme of Social Security. He explains how if we raise the age for people to access Social Security, that will harm poorer Americans who have a lower life expectancy due to the type of work they do or because of lack of other proper benefits. In the video, Coming of Age in and Aging America, they discuss the main theme of aging in America and the difficulties and obstacles these individuals face on a daily basis, especially in terms of Social Security. The video covers a variety of situations that the elderly face and how America can work to make the lives easier especially in a world where our elderly population in growing. One example was in a hospital where they were able to integrate new techniques and systems to make it easier for people to work longer into their lives. The main themes of Sharon Kaufman’s journal article were health care and the reform of current plans, and discussion of life-prolonging procedures. She discusses the three main procedures used in the U.S. which are organ transplantation, cardiac procedures, and cancer treatments. Finally, Segal’s text covers the themes and policies related to aging and elderly population. She discusses the acts and programs that have been put into place such as the Older Americans Act of 1965, social security, pensions, and Medicare/Medicaid, along with a variety of others.

The rapid growth in the number of seniors in America and around the world is creating a global demographic revolution without precedent. During this century, advances in hygiene and water supply and control of infectious diseases have reduced the risk of premature death much. As a result, the proportion of population over 60 years in the world is growing faster than in any previous era. In 1950 there were approximately 200 million people aged over 60 worldwide. By 2000 there will be over 550 million, and by 2025, the number of people over 60 is expected to reach 1,200 million.

First of all, older people consume a larger proportion of public services. For example, they require more health and social

This week, the lecture and additional articles were about the growing number of people reaching late adulthood and the problems that will be created for society. Society is not ready for the influx of elderly individuals needing assistance. In addition to discussing the amount of people reaching late adulthood, this week also touched on several models and theories in regards to aging. This week provided sufficient background information and vital knowledge for the introduction

While these aspects of society certainly do impact a nation with a growing older population, they are not the most problematic. Financial instability of the country should not be the spotlight of concern, but as people are living longer, people should be more concerned with that the typical life should look different in the future. With this in mind, the article proposes other areas of concern: lack of incentive for volunteering, little to no new education for older adults, and massive technological change with no way for older generations to learn how to use it. If these areas are not provided with change, it will ultimately lead to economic hardship for the elderly, due to the lack of new education and technological knowledge, which would, in turn, able them to work longer. If older generations were able to stay in the workforce longer, our aging society, which people believe may eventually not have a large enough work force, would be able to avoid this presumed

Back in twentieth century, a tiny fragment of mere 5% population was comprised of people aged 65 and above. A little spike in this segment was observed during the period of 1950s-1960s; however, that spike was not significant and restricted to 8% of entire population (Chart 1.1). Many factors were responsible for the small proportion of senior population, the most prominent one though, low life expectancy, high fertility/birth rates and limitation of health services.

Volunteering is undertaken in both organised and casual ways. Firstly, volunteering through organizations. That provided $5.9 billion to Queensland’s economy in 2004; $3.6 billion from the activities of middle-aged and older people. Australian Bureau Statistics (2007) also stated that volunteer rates were higher among older people who donated money than those who did not (30% compared with 17%). Secondly, volunteering through casual ways. de Vaus, D., Gray, M., & Stanton, D. (2003) said that Australians aged over 65 years contributed almost $39 billion per annum in unpaid caring and voluntary work ( rising to $74.5 billion per year if those aged 55 to 64 years is included) . Therefore, the unpaid work of older people as carers and volunteers saved a huge cost for the

Growth and development is an essential part of the life cycle, which leads to the occurrence of different phases like childhood, teenage and late adulthood. Aging is the period which is characterized by the onset of personal, cognitive and social changes. They feel hard to adjust the changes. Like rest of the world, the US also falls in the list of countries which have the highest population of elderly people. According to the Population Reference Bureau report, Americans ages 65 and older has projected to increase more than double from 46 million today to over 98 million by 2060, and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population will rise to nearly 24 percent from 15 percent (Mark Mather). The

While there are many theories within the Social Work/Gerontology discipline that is relevant to this topic, the one theory that seems most relevant is Activity Theory. Activity Theory argues that older people continue to benefit society as well as themselves when they continue to be active as they age. The theory argues that a senior’s positive perception

Now a days, ageing population is usually seen as a problem. However, most of the people reach old age relatively well. This essay aims to argue how the elderly in Australian society contribute to sustainable and healthy communities, and will also show how it is a positive

The population aging, in other words, the greying of the population is major concern all over the world. Many factors are leading to population aging, namely, unwillingness to marry, late marriage, fertility control, low birth rate and longer life span. All these factors are also related to developing status of the country. The more the country is developing, the more the factors have stronger effect on aging population and the age population problems of the country is more serious.

The increase in life expectancy is partially to blame for the increase in elderly citizens, as there are now better medicines and medical procedures to cure ailments which could have easily killed a person 10 or 20 years ago. As Levine said, "There are more elderly and a larger proportion of elderly in the population now than ever before in the history of the world, and individuals live longer and have a longer span of healthy, vigorous life than ever before" . We have to prepare, not only to have more aged people in the work force, but also to have adequate pensions and supplements to aid these people when they do retire.

Global population ageing means that by 2050 over 60s will comprise 22% of the world population at 2 billion (Banister et al, 2012). A report prepared by the Population Division for the World Assembly on Ageing in 2002 shows that population ageing is 'unpredecedented,' 'pervasive' and 'enduring', having a wide range of consequences for many countries and governments (UN). This wide spread phenomenon, therefore has many implications and this essay studies these in terms of economic, social, environmental and health factors. It then examines the responses of governments to these challenges and the use of innovation by scientists to reduce the negative impacts of an ever increasing elderly population.

Modern governments promise old age security, which ensures that their citizens can fend for themselves during old age. The approaches, however, may vary from society to society. In some like The United Kingdom and Canada, government pensions are distributed to the elderly. In some others such as Singapore, the people are compelled to provide in advance for their old age dependency. Some societies have laws in place to enforce children to take care of elderly parents. For example, in Singapore, elderly parents may file in to the court if their children do not provide for them. However, there are various financial concerns about these methods. In the case of government pensions, the heavy spending of public fund on the old aged may take a toll on other areas of the nation’s development. Thus a method that works in a society may not work in another and sometimes, multiple approaches have to be taken.

The world’s population is ageing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of the world's older adults is estimated to double from about 11% to 22%. In absolute terms, this is an expected increase from 605 million to 2 billion people over the age of 60.