International Day of Older Persons

On 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons with the theme being ‘The Journey to Age Equality".

The composition of the world population has changed dramatically in recent decades. Between 1950 and 2010 life expectancy worldwide rose from 46 to 68 years, and it is projected to increase to 81 by the end of the century.  It should be noted that at present women outnumber men by an estimated 66 million among those aged 60 years or over. Among those aged 80 years or over, women are nearly twice as numerous as men, and among centenarians’ women are between four and five times as numerous as men. For the first time in human history, in 2050, there will be more persons over 60 than children in the world.

Almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60. By 2050, 2 billion people, over 20 percent of the world's population, will be 60 or older. The increase in the number of older people will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, with Asia as the region with the largest number of older persons, and Africa facing the largest proportionate growth. With this in mind, enhanced attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by many older people is clearly required. Just as important, however, is the essential contribution the majority of older men and women can make to the functioning of society if adequate guarantees are in place. Human rights lie at the core of all efforts in this regard.

The government have chosen diverse approaches in setting priorities. These choices highlight different perceptions of the role that older people play in the family and in society at large. In some cases, measures aim to capture the rapidly evolving dynamics of communities and societies, inviting a second look at current perceptions about older persons and work, elder-care mechanisms, intergenerational support systems and financial constraints. Some Governments have designed policies founded on the principle of active ageing and autonomy, aimed at facilitating the continuation of independent lives at home, with services and facilities that cater for various types of needs. Others emphasize family ties and support for the family unit as the primary source of care for older persons. In all cases, various volunteer organizations and community-based centres, are essential to the smooth functioning of the entire system.

The different circumstances that shape the lives of women and men in old age are the outcome of a lifetime of experience. Good health, economic security, adequate housing, an enabling environment, access to land or other productive resources, these are the fundamentals of ageing with dignity, yet achieving them depends on decisions and choices only partly determined by each individual.

The impact of gender inequalities in education and employment becomes most pronounced in old age. As a result, older women are more likely than older men to be poor. Furthermore, older women often take on greater responsibilities for family care while managing inflexible working conditions, mandatory retirement ages and inadequate pensions and other social security benefits, which leave them, and those in their care, extremely vulnerable. Without doubt, ageing, its human rights challenges and its feminization constitute an unprecedented shift in the social fabric of all societies, with far-reaching consequences.

Empowering older persons in all dimensions of development, including promoting their active participation in social, economic and political life, is one way to ensure their inclusiveness and reduce inequalities.

Often, disparities in old age reflect an accumulated disadvantage characterized by factors such as: location, gender, socio‐economic status, health and income. Between 2015 and 2030, the number of people aged 60 and over is expected to increase from 901 million to 1.4 billion. In this regard, trends of ageing and economic inequality interact across generations and rapid population ageing, demographic and societal or structural changes alone, can exacerbate older age inequalities, thereby limiting economic growth and social cohesion.

The 2019 theme aims to:

·       Draw attention to the existence of old age inequalities and how this often results from a cumulation of disadvantages throughout life, and highlight the intergenerational risk of increased old age inequalities.

·       Bring awareness to the urgency of coping with existing — and preventing future — old age inequalities.

·       Explore societal and structural changes in view of life-course policies: life-long learning, proactive and adaptive labour policies, social protection and universal health coverage.

·       Reflect on best practices, lessons and progress on the journey to ending older age inequalities and changing negative narratives and stereotypes involving "old age."

Seniors and Recreational Opportunities 3

After the influence of the baby boomers, the second powerful demographic shift in the seniors’ population is immigration and the resulting cultural diversity. Starting a new life in Canada is challenging for most new immigrants but for older adults and seniors whose first language is not English, this transition can be especially difficult.

Without the structure and daily interaction that school or employment may provide, older adults and seniors may struggle to form connections in their new community.

Understandably, many rely on their younger family members to provide language translation and assistance navigating the system, but over time, that dependence can increase social isolation for the older adult. The ability to access support services and affordable opportunities for learning, recreation and social engagement is vital to a positive transition to living in Canada for many new immigrant older adults and seniors.

Segments of the older adult and senior population will continue to experience challenges and constraints to meaningful recreation participation. To put it simply: a constraint intervenes between the desire to participate and actual participation. These can be summarized into five main categories and can be understood as either a personal constraint or a constraint caused by a systemic barrier:

·   Financial: There is increasing income disparity within the senior demographic. The assumption that all seniors require some form of subsidy due to a low, fixed income needs further examination. Sixteen percent of Coquitlam’s 65+ population has low income (LIM-AT) and a large proportion of seniors living in poverty are single women.

·   Limited knowledge of available recreation resources: Information about recreation resources may not be available, relevant, or provided in a timely manner.

·   Transportation: Seniors need to be able to easily and safely get to and from a recreation centre, park or an event.

·   Health and activity limitations: Approximately half of Canadian seniors have health and activity limitations that impact their full participation in recreation.

·   Isolation and loneliness: Many seniors live alone; the number of isolated or lonely seniors is unknown. Seniors who are new to Canada may encounter language and other cultural barriers. The risk of becoming socially isolated and disconnected from community life increases significantly for seniors who experience one or more of these challenges and constraints. Seniors with low social support are less likely than were those with high social support to report positive self-perceived health and are more likely to be dissatisfied with life. Having a friend to participate with can make all the difference.

Seniors and Recreational Opportunities 2

As baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) move through our system, we continue to have an ongoing and variable impact on priorities for recreation service delivery, both on government and the private sector

The baby boomers will impact all communities in ways yet to be predicted as they age, continue to work or retire, and live longer than the generation before them.

The delivery of public recreation in Canada has always been shaped by the baby boomer generation and their families by directing programs and service delivery to children, youth and adults. These baby boomer-led families have influenced everything in North American culture from television programming to the rise of fast food. In the 1970s and 80’s, many communities became focused on building schools and providing programs for youth. Some municipalities supported the creation of stand-alone recreation facilities, purpose-built for seniors.

This was likely a reaction to the focus public recreation services placed on children and parent/adult programming. Seniors were likely feeling left out of recreation service provisions and, as a result, advocated for their own spaces and facility operating models, ensuring their voices were heard and their recreation needs met. The focus of recreation in seniors’ centres was on socializing and tapping into the collective wisdom and talent of retired seniors while at the same time providing low-cost programs for seniors on fixed incomes. Examples of these stand-alone centres include Oak Bay’s Monterey Recreation Centre which opened in 1971, Delta’s Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre in 1974, Coquitlam’s Dogwood Pavilion in 1977, and Vancouver’s Kerrisdale Community Centre, with the seniors’ wing, which opened in 1986.

Over the past few years, many municipalities have started to shift beyond this stand-alone facility model to an integrated facility model, keeping on trend with the changing patterns of recreation participation in older adults and seniors and optimizing the use of civic facilities.

Just as working with children and youth has been a dominant function of municipal recreation services to date, the focus moving forward will shift to an increased importance placed on older adults and seniors. Fortunately, due in large part to changes in social policy at the provincial and federal levels, fewer seniors are living in poverty today than 10 years ago. Advancing the value of recreation participation as an instrumental and enjoyable component of daily living to reduce health care costs has become a major driver of provincial health authorities.

Seniors and Recreational Opportunities 1

We all need to feel like we are contributing, especially after retirement. Often, when we retire some of us may struggle with not having something to “sink their teeth into”. Our time is not filled with work, so can it be filled by our recreational activities? Those of us who have been retired for a while, know that we are busier than we were when we were working.

I ran across an interesting concept and it helped me understand how and perhaps why not seniors use their leisure time. There are three interrelated concepts of leisure, Casual Leisure, Project-Based Leisure and Serious Leisure. These ideas were developed by Canadian sociologist Robert Stebbins, Ph.D.

According to Dr. Stebbins, a person who is working typically engages mostly in activities that can be defined as Casual Leisure. These activities do not take a lot of planning, can be flexible in nature and do not require extensive commitments. Casual Leisure is critical for managing stress, improving health, and for the sheer fun of the experience. Examples of Casual Leisure activities are watching TV, reading a book, walking in a park, taking a fitness or cooking class or having a fun hobby like gardening or swimming. So many seniors who are working part-time would engage in this type of leisure.

Many people are also involved in Project-Based Leisure, which is a short-term enjoyable commitment like coaching a child’s soccer team for a season, which for me, took 12 years until my children no longer wanted to play.

A Serious Leisure activity is one that takes extra commitment and develops to the point that it becomes part of a person’s identity. Examples of Serious Leisure could be playing in a band, regular volunteering for a cause, a hobby or sport that becomes so important that it begins to define a person. My brother-in-law is into restoring antique cars and that defines who he is as a person and has since he was in his early 20’s. My sister-in-law is into photography and it helps define who she is as a person. I am into volunteering and giving workshops and when I was working, I did volunteer work for boys and girls clubs.

Many of you when you were working were probably engaged in all three types of leisure behaviours like I was. However, after retirement developing a Serious Leisure activity may become critical in replacing the identity that has been lost through exiting the workforce.

When we retire, we want more flexibility in how we manage our time, and Public recreation departments need to facilitate opportunities that are flexible (Casual Leisure) for working seniors, as well as more enriching and involved (Project-Based or Serious Leisure) for those seniors looking to contribute and develop an identity through a meaningful leisure pursuit. The problem is they don’t. Seniors I have talked to who have thought about volunteering or taking part in activities say that they have met with barriers which involve time commitments and money that have turned them off of taking part.