A monograph entitled Gender Health and Healthcare - authored by Dr Jackie Watts, a member of the CABS research group - was published earlier this year by Ashgate. Below is a short excerpt from the book in which Jackie introduces the topic of dementia, focusing particularly on how, in the media, ageing is almost inevitably associated with dementia conveying negative representations of getting older.

The literature discussing social aspects of ageing has a tendency to present ageing in both idealistic (successful and productive) and nihilistic (decreasing capacity) ways. Nicholson and Hockley (2011) argue that older people can feel a pressure to define themselves as ‘less able’ and thus withdraw from existing social interactions that paradoxically can result in increased dependence. Ageing is complex and not just natural or biological. Segal (2013) argues that, whilst we might think that we age by nature, we are insistently aged by culture that in Western societies has an entrenched prejudice against ageing and old age.

A strong influence shaping the negative cultural prescriptions associated with ageing has been the very public growing anxiety of Western governments about the welfare resources needed to deal with the demographic changes caused by the huge rise in human longevity. Segal (2013) points out that over the twentieth century in the countries of the West an extra thirty years was added to average life expectancy, vastly increasing the percentage of people in retirement compared to the numbers of people in paid work. This shift in the balance between the older (retired) population and those of working age has become pronounced in the last fifty years. Of particular concern is the capacity of society to provide care in old age in the context of many people living into very old age with infirmity and frailty, some with high levels of dependency. Many addressing the topic of ageing seem to focus on aspects of cognitive deterioration, particularly dementia, with Downs (2011: 247) arguing that “people fear both living and dying with advanced dementia” and this for very good reason as advanced dementia drastically reduces the quality of life both for the dementia sufferer and their carer. Dementia is often portrayed as a ‘living death’ for those suffering the disease and a ‘living bereavement’ for their carers. It is a social as well as a biological disease that, in terms of public discourses and media representations of ageing and ‘being old’, has assumed a persuasive focus in constructing old age as a time of life to be feared as well as longed for. Miller (2011) takes a particularly gloomy view in his book poignantly entitled Losing It, dismissing all possible affirmations of old age and what he sees as the unmitigated disaster that is ageing captured by the materiality of many old people’s remorseless decline into second childhood. Segal (2013), however, points out that though the incidence of dementia will accelerate in the oldest old age group, it will still not predominate. This is not the picture often presented in media discourses on ageing.

References
Downs, M. (2011) ‘End of life care for older people with dementia: priorities for research and service development’ in M. Gott and C. Ingleton (eds.) Living with Ageing and Dying, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 247-251

Miller, W. I. (2011) Losing It, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Nicholson, C. and Hockley, J. (2011) ‘Death and dying in older people’ in D. Oliviere, B. Monroe and S. Payne (eds.) 2nd edition Death, Dying and Social Differences, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 101-109.

Segal, L. (2013) Out of Time, London and New York: Verso.

Watts, J. H. (2015) Gender, Health and Healthcare: Women’s and Men’s Experience of Health and Working in Healthcare Roles, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing

 

 

This event brought together a wide range of organisations including The Ransackers Association, Kilburn Older Voices Exchange, the British Society of Gerontology, The Open University and the Camden Intergenerational Network.

The morning session focused on addressing the question, “Do we have to grow up to grow old?” This was led by Dr John Miles , who had organised the day , with presenters Dr Liesbeth de Block, Emily Momoh and Denise Wilkinson OBE. I led the afternoon session, “Teaching older student – does age matter?” representing both the OU and the Association for Education and Ageing. 

It had been hoped that it would be possible to involve local sixth form sociology students who , apparently, study the life course. Unfortunately this did not happen as the school involved felt the demands of the curriculum left insufficient room for this ‘day out’. The sessions and the discussions throughout the day were excellent but I think the presence of school students would have added an invaluable dynamic.

Liesbeth de Block’s presentation outlined media research done with school age children in Kenya. In particular she focused on a soap opera –Makutano Juniors - designed to address the high dropout rate between primary and secondary school. This is a result of a number of factors including the start of fees and the use of English as the main medium for teaching. The soap is aimed at 10-14 year olds and this intention is that it sho0uld be viewed with family members. It is supposed to  be viewed with family members.  It is a magazine programme with items on numeracy, literacy, art, storytelling as well as a spin off from Makutano Junction –a an adult soap opera very popular in Kenya

The story lines in this spin off are very strong and highlight issues of rights, responsibilities and respect as far as children are concerned. Liesbeth was asked to conduct research into the effects of this programme.

She found that small detail often had powerful effects, for example how characters dressed. She also found that children were intrigued about being asked about their views but that it was difficult to get them to say what they actually thought

Parents often felt that the programme should act as a teaching machine although many acknowledge that it did help them raise difficult issues (such as sex education) with their children. Teachers, we were told, often felt threatened by the programme. Many saw it as a threat to their status and a challenge to their expertise although a few did recognise as a potentially valuable resource in a context were teaching resources are scarce.

Liesbeth’s presentation helped the participants consider the intergeneration aspect of the day and, to an extent, helped redress the lack of younger people in the audience. The presentations highlighting of the three words (rights, responsibilities and respect) helped remind us that these apply to everyone (of whatever age).

The focus on the notion that ageing is not just about old age was reinforced by Emily Momoh’s presentation about the Forgiveness Project. We were shown excerpts from a DVD “Unprovoked” which is a dramatised version of the true story of the murder of a teenage girl at a party in London. This video was used to encourage us to this about the impact of the choices that people make and it also raised, in a very powerful way, issues about jealousy and loyalty and the issues that young people have with families, especially broken families.

The final presentation of the morning was by Denise Wilkinson who outlined her involvement with ‘Gran Mentors’ and with Grand Parents Plus. Gran Mentors is an example of older people supporting younger people who have been ’in trouble’ or who have been in care. So far, is seems to work better with this second group and it clearly demonstrates the appetite of older people to open up to and support younger people. The same applies to the amount of caring of children done by grandparents which is important in the UK with its very high rates of child care costs.

The three sessions helped make the case that intergenerational contacts are vital in breaking down the stereotypes that different generations might have about each other and how these stereotypes can get in the way of seeing people as individuals.

It probably impossible for me to give an objective accounts of my own workshop. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it and the participants were engaged and joined in with a lively discussion on the topic of whether age matters in relation to teaching older students.

I structured the workshop by getting people to identify as either older students who thought age matters, older students who though age did not matter, teachers who though age matters and teachers who thought age did not matter. This resulted in four groups who each considered why they thought age did, or did not matter. The two teaching groups were then asked to produce some teaching while the older student groups were asked to say what they would look for in this teaching. I asked them to think about a mini-course on the Putney Debates of 1647 (the notion of the Kilburn debates is a reference to these debates at the end of the English Civil War when the extension of the franchise was discussed). As a focus this worked very well –to the extent that people from the Ransackers thought they should do a course on this topic.

So what conclusions did we reach? That’s quite a difficult one as sometimes the different groups seemed to use very similar arguments about the need to design learning with particular individuals in mind as to say both that age does matter and that age does not matter. There was a strong, if contested, feeling that it was not always comfortable for older people to learn alongside younger people –but this was hotly contested too. I thought it was remarkable that no one said that age matters because old people are different in some obvious way –for example there was no mention of older people finding it difficult to remember information. Great play was made of the fact that age can bring potentially useful experience and accumulated knowledge –although I did point out that for some if can reinforce negative or narrow views.

We probably didn’t anticipate that there would be any easy answers and perhaps it’s sufficiently valuable to highlight that there are no simple answers.

Dr Jonathan Hughes                                                                                                 17th May 2015

Three in every five people will be carers at some point in their lives so it is likely that you will know someone who is or has been a carer. The number of carers in the UK is estimated to be around 6.5 million. In Scotland, there are about 650,000 unpaid carers providing care and support to family members, partners, friends and neighbours who are affected by ill health, frailty or disability. These numbers are projected to rise over the next twenty years, in response to an increasingly ageing population and fewer social services.

Carers face challenges to their health, wellbeing and quality of life simply because of the role they have taken on. In a recent survey, 83% of carers in Scotland said that caring had a negative effect on their physical health and 65% said that it had a negative impact on their mental health. Half of working-age carers reported living in a household with no-one in paid work while 170,112 said they gave up paid employment to care for someone. This situation has serious consequences for individual and household finances. Not only are carers more likely to be in poor health than their peers, but they also experience a loss of income, savings and benefits at a time when food and fuel bills are increasing. 

The contribution of carers is being increasingly recognised in both government policy and professional practice. In a recent public display of support for carers, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on proposed changes to the Carers Strategy. The proposals seek to improve support for carers, old and young alike by placing a duty on local authorities to inform and offer them a ‘Carers Support Plan’. Likewise, the Equal Partners in Care (EPiC) project seeks to improve support by increasing awareness and identification of carers across the education, health and social care sectors. These measures are however, focused on carers who are currently providing care.

What about former carers?  Carers who once provided care but are no longer doing so. The carer population is dynamic and constantly changing whereby 30% to 40% of carers stop providing care each year while a similar proportion start. These figures suggest that the population of former carers is increasing in size and will continue to do so. Don’t they also deserve our support too? After all, they put their lives on hold, gave up their jobs and worthwhile careers, or struggled to juggle the demands of work with providing unpaid care for a loved one.

 Sadly, little attention is paid to the needs and experiences of the 2 million individuals who become former carers each year.  They rarely hit the headlines in national newspapers or feature on local or national television. They are almost completely overlooked by government policy. 

It has been suggested that when caregiving ends, carers have no purpose to their lives and poor health means they are unlikely to re-enter the workplace. A more positive view is that far from leaving carers with no purpose, caregiving has enabled them to develop new skills and interests. That the end of caregiving may offer former carers the opportunity to explore new horizons and opportunities to use the skills developed whilst a carer. Former carers are potentially a valuable and underused resource. 

Is this simply speculation or actual fact?  Without evidence we cannot be certain.  Carers however, deserve support not only during caregiving but also in the post-caring period when their lives may once again be in a period of turmoil and transition.

Further information is available at:  www.formercarers.co.uk
Email: [email protected]    
Twitter: @joycecavaye  

 

 

 

 

This past year I have been working in my spare time with my friends in the Ransackers Association to organise a series of seminars and workshops about learning in later life. We were fortunate to get some Big Lottery funding (Awards for All) to run the sessions and pay for a professional video explaining what Ransackers does and some of the stories of the 600+ people who have taken part since the beginning in 2004.

The name Ransackers comes from the Gaelic word Rannsachadh meaning to explore, scrutinise and discover: exactly what the project founder, the late Vi Hughes, wanted for this group of older people. They see the project as an `Educational Adventure’ because it enables people of 55 + years, who have not previously had the opportunity of higher education, to engage in college life by studying and researching a project of their own choosing, ending up with a 5-10,000 word thesis.  Colleges have provided tutorial, IT and study skills support - many students will not have written an essay or thought about academic work since they left school.  Some Ransackers have gone on to complete full degrees, from BA/BSc to PhDs.  All Ransackers students return to their communities better informed and more confident to carry out whatever commitments they may have.

However, in the current economic climate the whole concept of adult learning for its own sake – as opposed to for employment purposes – has taken a kicking and Ransackers has felt the impact badly as the participating HE colleges, one after another, have withdrawn from running these courses. The sessions we held this year have been looking at ways to take this adventure forward, and the skills necessary for active Ransackers to fight for this principle and produce opportunities for older people in the future similar to the ones they have enjoyed.

The video that the Ransackers created with Nick Foxell is available here
Please take a look at it. I defy you not to be moved by some of these accounts of passion for learning and the very joy of it. If you would like to help, get in touch via the Ransackers website or contact me, Caroline Holland, via CABS.

Since 1990, the UN has designated 1st October each year as the International Day of Older Persons. Over on Twitter, @LGBTageing asked some of us what we were doing to celebrate the day. This is one CABS member, Rebecca Jones, 's personal reply:

Of course there’s lots of good things about later life and growing older, and it’s really important to resist the common discourses of old age as decline and despair. Celebrating ageing and older people is one way of doing that and it’s an important project that I’m really pleased organisations and individuals are taking on. But I find myself a bit hesitant at writing something simply ‘celebratory’ about older people.

Some of my discomfort about ‘celebrating’ older persons is because I am not yet myself generally categorised as an ‘older person’. Of course, the beauty of the term ‘older person’ is that is is inherently relative – I am older than I was, older than a teenager, older than some of my colleagues – so in that sense everyone is an older person. But the term usually gets used in the UK to refer to people in their 60s, 70s or older. In some contexts, including in the study of non-heterosexual ageing, ‘older’ often includes people in their 50s, but I’m not quite there yet either. Because I’m not yet in that chronological age bracket, for all I recognise the social constructedness of those age categories, it feels to me as if ‘older people’ is other than me. And since I do not feel like an ‘older person’ myself yet, it feels potentially a bit patronising and otherising to ‘celebrate’ older people as a group.

Older people are hugely diverse and people’s experiences of ageing and later life vary enormously. They are far too diverse to be simply ‘celebrated’. The phenomenon of ageing also seems to me to be to be far too complex to be simply a matter of celebration. Ageing is just a thing, it’s neither bad nor good. Of course we’re not starting on a level playing field – ageing is hugely stigmatised and demonised. Therefore I do in practice spend quite a lot of my time talking up the positives of ageing and later life, in an attempt to redress the balance. But, being a contrary sort of person, I find the invitation to celebrate makes me want to note some of the reasons it’s more complex than that.

As so often when I’m thinking about age, I discover that my colleague and former PhD supervisor, Bill Bytheway, has got there before me. What follows are some extracts from the last page of his 1995 book ‘Ageism’ [1]. He is talking about whether the best way to refute ageism is to be positive about later life. He cites the experiences so many of us have had when we say we work with older people: acquaintances say ‘that must be depressing!’ and the temptation is to reply:

Most elderly people are really nice, absolutely fascinating once you get to know them … The things they say! … Working with them is really interesting … Some of them are real characters!

Instead, Bytheway suggests we should reply:

The people I work with are pretty ordinary. They have lived long lives and survived many experiences. I like working with them because there are things I can do to make life more satisfactory for them. They tell me what they think and I listen to them and sometimes argue. You can learn a lot from ordinary people. I enjoy the work; it’s worth doing.

Bytheway, B. (1995) Ageism Open University Press, Buckingham and Philadelphia.