Policy Making

How old Are You?

The innovative of last century highlighted the cognition and communication of meaning at the heart of what it means to be human. There is the view on humanness centered around people’s involvement with the world, which highlights meaningful quality of human life- a full sense of human action. However, there has been slow decay of people’s feel for the world and a consequent move toward words (Gosden, 1994). We seek most human interpretation of self in developing our intellectual capacity. As our wisdom bounds up with our meanings we are drawn toward profound understanding of the purpose of life with the thinking gift in overcoming our fears and vulnerabilities, toward position of control, toward increasing intellectual and learning. Certainly we have grown older in civilization, and in population.

İn today’s rapidly ageing population, attempts to prolonging mental and physical capacities in later years of life equates with our perception of our place in the world, and that we are the thinkers, and participants at all ages in what is happening around us, in its entirety.

The assumption is that we use small part of our mental capacity, and that mental and physical activities along with social engagements can delay decline in cognition. Regular mental exercises such as puzzles or simple problems have proved to keep ageing brains sharper. Recent findings prove that by inducing a rewiring of the brain and increasing connectivity, lost memories can be retrieved once again(Nature, 2007). Change of perception on ageing in learning, as a social construct is on the way. The reality was overlooked in the past that people discover their interest and passion in for research and further learning until more advanced stages in their field.

Further investigation also discovered that in learning specific tasks, we develop habitual actions that will not require further invovlment of brain in learning. Therefore, learning advanced techniques can become a habit with less efforts that is expected. Keeping physically fit or cognitively challenged proved to delay ageing and increases mental agility. The same is true with increased social activities and adding environmental dimension and awareness to the life of aged, which needs further studies to find scientific credibiility.

Environment enrichment, that is to say, making life more interesting has proved to improve learning and long term memory by the means of increasing brain’s cells making more connections with other neurons. Environment preferences influence our behaviour, governs our well being and health. They are learned through past experiences and are influenced by our social and economic level with age as an important catalyst. Older people need not be silent about impacts of environmental degradation, rather reliable and strong voice. Those who do not take initiative to enhance their knowledge and involvements face a sense of distance both from the society and their families and grow dependablity as technologies advance further. Substantial monitoring excercise is essential to determine the extent of environemental degration which vary greatly with location and season. Initiation in taking a monitoring role that needs experience and patience to provide reliable feedbacks can be a starting point for older people. The environmental debate need trustable knowledge and advocates for policy and planning, and we need higher awareness and wiser account of the way we go about our lives in different phases.

We are constantly bombarded by the fast pace of knowledge making and innovation that brings up a life long learning necessary. Competing forces of information combined with the experience of aged, that has proved to increase productivity, are embeded in policy making. Studies show that there are benefits from having an age integrated workforce, hence, eliminating the stereotyping belief that older workers are less productive than younger ones. The largest study of ageing and retirement ever undertaken, conducted for HSBC by the University’s Institute of Ageing, has found that far from being a drain on society, older people are huge contributors to their nation’s economies and families and have little interest in retiring early (Oxford Univ News, 2007.

New roles of socialy constructed are to change the stagnant disposition in older ages, for a balanced work force, paricularly rising expectation for active role in economy and stressing the significance of environment in health and in learning. Younger brain cells excitability attract more memory networks and out number older ones but there are mature brain cells that categorize input patterns (Nature, Mar 2007).

In economy, increasingly information rich society where individuals are no longer prepared to entrust their hard earned money, require adjustments of policies and practices. The retreat of the state and the employer from the role of sponsor of retirement provision is global phenomenon, the retirement planning is falling increasinly in the individual and this is ushering in a new thinking to provide stability over the long term. ‘While there are undoubted concerns over current pension shortfalls, it is also clear that working lives will themselves change over the next few decades, with the extension of working life to over the age of 70 (1).

İn health, with the advancement made in medicine people’s life expectancy has increased enourmously. People live longer even with degenerative diseases, hence, prolonged disability and morbidty is expected to rise, which needs directed efforts toward technology advancement and training programmes for more independence for vulnerable population. Self efficacy is important because successful task completion requires not only skills, but also self beliefs about personal ability associated with completing the task (Banura, 1986).

Disability is a social construct which projects functional capacity of individuals in the society, that is due to measures related to every country’s health status. Developing countries ‘are increasingly faced with the simultaneous burdens of infectious diseases plus the growing demands of ageing populations, increasing numbers of people with mental health problems and chronic conditions, but without sufficient resources to deal with them (World Bank, 2005). They highlight the different vulnerabilities, risks and coping strategies of poor women and men in the face of environmental degradation(Oxfam, 2002).

Quantifying issues related to ageing such as, health and cognitive fitness is challenging as is separating social factors from cognitive stimulation. 'The kind of evidence that is needed to support solid conclusion about the expansion or contraction of morbidity is not available for most countries. İn the absence of more detailed information about changes in physical and mental functioning, it would be premature to declare that we are at the beginning of an epidemic of disability or a significant expansion of the period of ill health and disability at the end of life (2)’.

However lack of data should not deter us to observe evidences that clearly indicate activity in all aspects of life improve our quality of life in older ages. Quantitative predictions fullfil important social, economic and political roles regardless of their quality, accuracy or appropriatness, against which the planning will be made and adjusted by decision makers. Yet we need to be more qualitative in how we combine various changes in the society. There is the task of enhancing cognitive, social and economic capabilities for running a productive life in old ages and then, comes the task of motivating to carry on the life style.





(1, 2) www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk- Ageing Society, Vol 16, No 2, 2

(3) The Oxford Times, May 25, www.theoxfordtimes.net/display.var.1424224.0.0.php


References:

Bandura, Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986

Colcombe. S.J. et al. Med. Sci. 61,1166 - 1170, 2006

Gosden, C., Social Being and Time, Blackwell Publishers, 1994

Nature nerroscience, Editorial, , Vol 10, No 3, Mar 2007

Nature, p. 19, Vol 447, 3 May 2007 (Dorothy Bishop, neuroscientist at Oxford Univ)
Timothy Salthouse, Univ of Virginia, Researcher of Cognitive ageing

Oxfam, Gender development and climate change, Edited by: Rachel Masika, 2002

Rolls, E., & Treves, A., Neural networks and brain function, Oxford Univ Press, 1998

Row, David, Stress Testing,
www.incisive-events.com/abs, 2007

David Snow, Cindy White, Colwin Morril; Together Alone, Personl Relationships in Public Places, Univ of California Press, 2005

World Bank – Health Systems Development, June 2005