| |
|||||
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
News
Aging In Ohio: Definitions and IssuesThe generation of babies that boomed in the years following World War II shook up American culture, creating dramatic changes in politics, economics and lifestyle. Now, the Boomers face a new revolution as their formerly long hair starts turning gray. 90.3's David C. Barnett spoke with a number of Clevelanders to gauge the impact of aging in Ohio.
DCB–11-year-old Angel Yarbrough hasn’t quite worked out when you can start calling a person old Angel(1:00:20)–Sixty-three..... or.... thirty....or when they start getting gray hairs [giggles]. DCB–Five-year-old Max isn’t so coy when pinning a number to the definition of old age. Max–Twenty-one. DCB–Twenty-one? Max–Yeah, that’s how you get old by being twenty-one. DCB–Howard Bramm understands the perceptions of youth. When Bramm was a kid, he certainly had a different ideas about what it took to be an old person. Bramm–Anyone over 50 years old. [laughs] DCB–74-year-old Howard Bramm is the former CEO of the Menorah Park Center for Aging, a suburban Cleveland facility, featuring independent living apartments, as well as skilled nursing care and home-delivered meals. He says his personal and professional life experiences have changed his thoughts on aging. Bramm–Old is an attitude. I know people who are over 65-years-old who are just meandering and wasting their lives, talking about all of their medical problems. As opposed to other people I know - including myself - who just can’t find enough time to do everything that we want to do. Stoiber–Most of us would think of old as an age, but even there, it depends. DCB–Dr. Marlene Stoiber is a strategic planning consultant, who helps organizations project five and ten years into the future. She says the culture sends mixed messages about aging. Stoiber–When people turn 50, typically the AARP sends out a membership form. A 60, the funeral homes and cemetaries start soliciting business for people to start planning for their last days. ... The Older Americans Act says you’re old if you’re sixty years old, Medicare says you’re old if you’re 65..... There is not just one definition of old age. DCB–Dr. Carol Whitlatch is a Senior Research Associate at the Benjamin Rose Institute, an agency with a 91-year history in addressing the issues of aging. Whitlatch–I think some people would say you’re aging the moment that you’re born. DCB–Whitlatch says not many people see aging as a continual process. She thinks the more common perspective equates "aging" with "being elderly". And it isn’t a positive comparison. Whitlatch–I think a lot of people have a negative connotation, because they see older people as being frail ....or somehow inactive. But that doesn’t have to be the case. But that’s not aging. That’s being.... physically impaired. You can be young and have that. DCB–Since the turn of the century, the reality of being old has changed dramatically. A person born in 1900 could only expect to live to the age of 47. Today most people easily live into their mid-seventies and beyond. Stoiber Ambience–This is true in Cuyahoga County....I’ve got the numbers here..... DCB–Two years ago, Marlene Stoiber analyzed the status of older persons in Cuyahoga County...... One finding was that one out of five people is 60 or older. Stoiber–At the same time that this increase in the so-called "younger elderly" is occurring, we also have huge increases in the 75+ and the 85+ populations. As people age, by the mid-seventies there are just more health problems. More issues with functional limitations and so forth, and all of this has serious implications for the medical service industry. DCB–Carol Whitlatch of the Benjamin Rose Institute says there are also some serious implications and tough choices ahead when it comes to family care-giving. Whitlatch–With more older people, and people having children later, for example, there’s going to be a lot of people with older relatives and they’re not going to be able to take care of them because they have their own children to take care of - the "sandwich generation", some people call that. DCB–The image of a sandwich is used to convey the dilemma of a generation being squeezed between these two different care-giving pressures. Whitlatch adds that this age group is also going to make decisions about the quality of extended life. Is it desirable to push the aging envelope… while living in a nursing home? The Baby Boomers who once laughed at the lyrics of the Beatle’s When I’m 64..... now find themselves edging perilously close to that gerontological plateau. Whitlatch–I don’t think that people think of 65 as old anymore. They just don’t. It just seems like it’s too young. Maybe it should be "When I’m 84".....85...95. DCB–Modern health care and medical technology have helped to blur the concept of aging in our culture. We know that the graying of Ohio stands to create a whole new set of issues for us in the century to come. We’re just not quite sure at what age you can call soembody old. Even three-year-old Max has been having second thoughts. Max–You don’t get old when you’re twenty-one. You have to get years to be a grown-up. Lots of years. DCB–So, how old are you when you’re old? Max–40 Links:
|
|
|
Home | About 90.3 WCPN®
| Program Schedules | Listen
Live | The Spotlight Copyright © 2002 90.3 WCPN® All rights reserved. |
