What are some of the lessons you’ve shared?
There are so many. Some may seem small, but they’re important. For example, Mailman School researchers have been looking at how urban infrastructure and public policy can affect the lives of older city dwellers. We’ve shown that installing more street benches, giving older people free access to public transportation, and inviting them to take classes at local universities and at other institutions through which they can stay engaged can dramatically increase their levels of physical, social, and mental activity, and thereby improve their overall health. These are enormously cost-effective measures that can be implemented in cities around the world.
And then there are larger-scale interventions. My Mailman colleague Kavita Sivaramakrishnan is now working in India, China, and Kenya to understand culturally relevant approaches to long-term-care programs for older people. We believe that expanding such programs is a critical need, because these and many other developing nations are undergoing social changes similar to those that occurred in the US many decades ago, when grown children began moving far away from their parents and so were no longer available to directly care for them in their later years. China has the most urgent need for new approaches, as a result of its one-child policy.
To get back to the US, what work must still be done here?
We are still in the process of defining what we want our lives to look like in our seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond. While many people are truly happy retiring and devoting their time to family, hobbies, and leisure, others feel the urge to do more. We know this is true because Experience Corps, along with a handful of other nationwide volunteer programs for older people, always has long waiting lists of would-be participants. I’m an advocate for these programs not because I think doing volunteer work is the only way to age healthfully but because I’ve seen firsthand what it can mean for older people to know that their lives still have a larger purpose. I’ve sat with retired police officers, plumbers, lawyers, corporate CEOs, and others who, after mentoring children, have looked me in the eye and said things like, “This is the most important work I’ve ever done.” That conviction inspires them to get out of bed every day, to walk to a nearby school, and to stay physically and mentally fit. And as a result, a child who might otherwise have dropped out of school goes on to graduate. Two lives are changed.
We need to design more roles like this for older people, whether that means having them serve as community health advocates, companions for homebound people, or mentors to younger employees at their companies. We need to stop bemoaning the challenges posed by our population’s aging and instead ask ourselves a bold question: how could this transition be great?
Columbia Magazine talked about the secrets to living a longer, healthier, and happier life and why the graying of America may be a good thing with Dean Linda P. Fried.
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