Monday, December 5, 2005

Growing old just isn't what it used to be. We're living longer and staying healthier into our later years. The quality of those years depends not only on our financial means and physical health but also on our psychological preparedness for aging. This is the first segment in our two week examination of those issues critical to growing old, titled "The Aging Boom."

     

(Click for larger view.) Gene Goodman, reading mentor and his friend Orlando at the Intergenerational School in Cleveland (Vivian Goodman)

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Every month another 16,000 Ohioans turn 60. Because of increasing longevity, declining disability rates and earlier retirement, more of them can look forward to what gerontologists call "successful aging." The concept, developed in the late 1980's, generally means maintaining good health, staying mentally and physically active, and staying actively engaged in life. Dr. Joe Foley serves on the Cleveland foundation's Task Force on successful aging:

When we first discussed it, somebody said successful aging was the reaching old age with no mental or physical infirmities, and I said anybody who did that is a biological freak. Everybody who attains the age of 70 or 75 is going to have something wrong with him or her. Successful aging is the taking whatever they throw at you, handling it with courage and dignity, and preserving your own relative degree of independence.

Prospects for Successful aging seem good. With average life expectancy at 83, and the average retirement age at 58. Middle age could become a whole new start on life. But first you need to decide what to do with yourself:

"I have no clue."

Recent retiree Diane Damicone shares her experience at a retirement planning workshop. She worked for Kent State University for nearly 40 years:

"I did everything wrong when I retired. I went through this workshop many years ago, and I didn't follow through with anything I learned because I was too busy with my job."

But even the best-laid retirement plans can fall through. That's what happened to Kent State retirees Linda and Jim Best:

"We retired with the idea that we wanted to do it while we were healthy enough because we love to travel. And one of the first things that happened right after we retired was that my knees started giving out, which prevented us from traveling."

The Bests got over that roadblock by changing their itinerary to make their travels less physically demanding. Sociologists call that kind of adjustment "instrumental coping." Eva Kahana director of the Elder Care Research Center at Cleveland State University, says today's seniors are good at handling what life throws at them:

"Perhaps the overriding finding in all of our studies is that actually at the time you might think people are weak and vulnerable, in many ways we find evidence of their great resilience."

Kahana and her psychologist husband Boaz Kahana have been monitoring older adults in Cleveland and Clearwater, Florida for more than 15 years. They've found no significant difference between the two groups in successful aging. Some do better staying in Cleveland, close to their children and grandchildren, and others thrive on the sunshine in retirement communities down South:

Eve Kahana: "We were very surprised to find that the people in the retirement community would tell us that around Christmastime, they are very happy to see their grandchildren come, but they are even happier when their grandchildren leave."

Boaz Kahana: "And then again, there are some 'retirement communities that are really intergenerational, that have people of all ages living there - older people, the grandparental generation, and adults with growing children in the school system. So, we're beginning to see a wider variety of types of settings where older people can live comfortably."

The Kahanas say that to age successfully, many older persons need to be with younger ones.

78 -year-old Gene Goodman is a reading mentor at the Intergenerational School in Cleveland. Helping ten-year-old Orlando learn to read gives Goodman a sense of purpose. It also helps him feel less lonely for his own children who live far away:

"I'm just a children's person, and I just enjoy being with them. These young girls and boys are terrific, and they want to learn."

At 83, Gen Woods is also making a difference in her community. We found her answering phones during a public radio fund drive:

"I am the Queen of Volunteers. I am a potato peeler at the Haven of Rest. I volunteer for the Metropolitan Parks, for the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad, WKSU, E.J. Thomas - I usher, Civic Theater, Weathervane Playhouse. I get a lot of satisfaction out of giving to the community."

Woods worked for 30 years for the Akron Board of Education. One thing she loves about volunteering is the people she meets:

"They're neat, neat people. And the organization, or for whomever you volunteer, are so appreciative and you go home feeling 10 feet tall."
i
Vivian: "And maybe 20 years younger."
Gen: "Oh, indeed, indeed. And we've got to think about that, don't we? Because most of us want to live 'til we die."

Volunteering is a privilege many seniors can enjoy because of the positive trend in median income for those over 65. According to a federal report, over the last three decades it's increased almost 40 percent. But ten percent of older Americans are still living in poverty and need to work for pay. Their best hope is the impending exodus of baby boomers from the workforce. 76 million of them make up half of the labor force and when they retire, there will be only 45 million Generation X'ers to take over their jobs. Some analysts predict that by the end of the decade there'll be a shortage of up to 10 million workers. That opens up opportunities for people like Sharon Ann Mooney:

"Good morning, RSVP. How can I help you?"

At 55, Mooney qualified for the AARP Senior Employment Program. The receptionist job they found for her is temporary, but she's also getting training:

"I'm learning to, kind of learning with computer work, you know, doing my filing, faxing, Xerox copying, and greet people and so forth - so that when I go out, I will know how to do these things."

Studies have shown that working helps seniors stay healthier and avoid depression, one of the most common mental illnesses among older Americans.
But Cleveland State's Boaz Kahana has found that old age in itself is not a significant depressor:

"By and large, our study has found a very, very slight increase in depression, very little increase if any, with aging. There is a small caveat there too, and that is that some researchers are talking about Alzheimer's disease, where the biological processes involved can also get the person to portray more depressive symptoms - and that's an open area of research."

What the Kahanas can say more conclusively is that even a hard life doesn't have to end sadly. We tend to put our traumatic stresses behind us:

"By and large, their post-traumatic symptoms tend to decline. We found that very clearly in our Pearl Harbor study, and we also found in our Holocaust study that these people managed to live good, normal lives afterwards. That should be reassuring for people who have less severe stressors."

Stress relief in later years can come in unexpected ways. Dorothy Potts recently retired from a secretarial job where every morning she had to decide what to wear to work. She bragged to former co-workers about her new discovery:

"Sweatclothes. Comfortable, at-home, evening-type clothes, and it's just so easy to go out of the house in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, and when it's cold, a turtleneck. But I find it very difficult to dress up. I mean, this is as good as it gets, really."

Potts says she volunteers a lot and loves learning new things, but the biggest thing she's mastered since retiring is the art of relaxation:

"Time goes so fast. I'm enjoying it immensely. And I learned to sleep in very early."

I'm Vivian Goodman, WKSU News

     

Web Resources

Visit our "Aging Boom" homepage for more about this series

Federal Interagency Forum for Aging Related Statistics

The Intergenerational School

Sponsorship for the aging series provided by: