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Aging and society, volume II: Aging and the professions
J ChrooDis 1970,Vol. 23, pp. 517-519, Pergamon Press. Printed in Great Britain
BOOK REVIEW AGING AND SOCIETY, VOLUME II: AGING AND THE PROFESSIONS. Edited by MATILDA WHITE RILEY, JOHN W. RILEY, Jr. and MARILYN E. JOHNSON. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1969. 375 pp. Indexed. Price not available. THIS volume, second in a series, is well-written,
ably edited and contains material of much interest to all those in professions that encounter older people and their special concerns. The initial point the editors make is that this includes a very wide variety of professions. While medicine has, of necessity, developed geriatrics, few other professions have examined the need for special approaches to the older citizen, including planning during middle-age. This gap, long-standing, is highlighted by the demographic and social changes of the last decades. The 65 and older sector of the U.S. population has increased from 3 per cent early in the century to a current 10 per cent. The 45 and older sector constitutes approximately one third of the population, having risen from 10 per cent. The chapters deal with social work, medicine, nursing, public health, law, architecture and planning, manpower development, finance management, education, mass communications and the ministry. In each field the topic is introduced by the editors and presented by one expert, with the assistance and consultative help of several others. While not going so far as to say, “Old is beautiful”, the editors reject the idea that older age has, of necessity, to be a set of intractable ills and problems; and certainly current ills are not intrinsic to aging. (In medicine, our own concepts have surely changed as to whether hypertension and atherosclerosis, for example, are inevitable concomitants of aging.) Because the editors and authors believe, based both on social science and other research data that many of the problems of older people are social failures rather than natural ones, and because they also believe in the capacity of individuals (even old individuals) to change, they can then take up in considerable depth and detail the special and changing problems of older persons, and where the professions need to change in order to catch up and keep up. They highlight such problems as isolation from society, exclusion from the labor market, the feeling of uselessness and the grave concern for economic security. Programs and policies are suggested to meet these problems, and the gaps in different professions are examined. They urge both help to the individual (especially via a more sensitive approach by doctor, nurse, social worker, etc.) and emphasis on community, or social, solutions to many of the problems. For example, too early compulsory retirement is difficult to approach as an individual problem; a change in community practices and/or laws is required. Similarly, certain changes in Social Security, which currently discourages useful employment, need a social solution. The need for continuing education and personal growth (which they maintain exists during old age as well as during younger years), while possible to approach through the unique method of the newsworthy grandmother returning for her B.A., is much more likely to respond to mass media programs for older people. The need for possible job re-training during the middle years, in order to have a useful skill that will be in demand when the worker has passed the age where physical strength or exactness in vision are required for work, will most probably require a social solution involving manpower management, unions, education systems, etc. The editors point out that a cloud hanging over the picture is the scramble for limited resources and, therefore, the existence of competing valid needs. This, of course, is a problem widely recognized in the entire health field, and perhaps most acutely in the preventive area. This valuable book, dealing with great sensitivity and respect for older individuals and their needs, the changing character of these needs, the gaps in society for meeting them, the need to change the professions so they can play their part-merits wide circulation and attention. JEREMIAHSTAMLER
517
BOOK REVIEW AGING AND SOCIETY, VOLUME II: AGING AND THE PROFESSIONS. Edited by MATILDA WHITE RILEY, JOHN W. RILEY, Jr. and MARILYN E. JOHNSON. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1969. 375 pp. Indexed. Price not available. THIS volume, second in a series, is well-written,
ably edited and contains material of much interest to all those in professions that encounter older people and their special concerns. The initial point the editors make is that this includes a very wide variety of professions. While medicine has, of necessity, developed geriatrics, few other professions have examined the need for special approaches to the older citizen, including planning during middle-age. This gap, long-standing, is highlighted by the demographic and social changes of the last decades. The 65 and older sector of the U.S. population has increased from 3 per cent early in the century to a current 10 per cent. The 45 and older sector constitutes approximately one third of the population, having risen from 10 per cent. The chapters deal with social work, medicine, nursing, public health, law, architecture and planning, manpower development, finance management, education, mass communications and the ministry. In each field the topic is introduced by the editors and presented by one expert, with the assistance and consultative help of several others. While not going so far as to say, “Old is beautiful”, the editors reject the idea that older age has, of necessity, to be a set of intractable ills and problems; and certainly current ills are not intrinsic to aging. (In medicine, our own concepts have surely changed as to whether hypertension and atherosclerosis, for example, are inevitable concomitants of aging.) Because the editors and authors believe, based both on social science and other research data that many of the problems of older people are social failures rather than natural ones, and because they also believe in the capacity of individuals (even old individuals) to change, they can then take up in considerable depth and detail the special and changing problems of older persons, and where the professions need to change in order to catch up and keep up. They highlight such problems as isolation from society, exclusion from the labor market, the feeling of uselessness and the grave concern for economic security. Programs and policies are suggested to meet these problems, and the gaps in different professions are examined. They urge both help to the individual (especially via a more sensitive approach by doctor, nurse, social worker, etc.) and emphasis on community, or social, solutions to many of the problems. For example, too early compulsory retirement is difficult to approach as an individual problem; a change in community practices and/or laws is required. Similarly, certain changes in Social Security, which currently discourages useful employment, need a social solution. The need for continuing education and personal growth (which they maintain exists during old age as well as during younger years), while possible to approach through the unique method of the newsworthy grandmother returning for her B.A., is much more likely to respond to mass media programs for older people. The need for possible job re-training during the middle years, in order to have a useful skill that will be in demand when the worker has passed the age where physical strength or exactness in vision are required for work, will most probably require a social solution involving manpower management, unions, education systems, etc. The editors point out that a cloud hanging over the picture is the scramble for limited resources and, therefore, the existence of competing valid needs. This, of course, is a problem widely recognized in the entire health field, and perhaps most acutely in the preventive area. This valuable book, dealing with great sensitivity and respect for older individuals and their needs, the changing character of these needs, the gaps in society for meeting them, the need to change the professions so they can play their part-merits wide circulation and attention. JEREMIAHSTAMLER
517