Holistic Ageing

A white paper by Singapore Management University (SMU) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Tata Consultancy Services written in 2016, explores a concept of Holistic Ageing, which can be used for helping seniors age in place.

“Longevity is the defining challenge of our age. We need to make sure it’s a blessing, not a curse.” Laurence Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock, USA

Technology has a role to play to help us as we age, The following chart shows the focus and the impact technology can have on us as we age. Our friends have just bought Alexa for their home and they love it. Alexa is a tool that can be used by seniors in many ways, one way I have not thought about but is one that is worth pursuing is around falls.

One of the biggest issues for many seniors is the risk of falling and not being able to get up. There are many sensors on the market that people can wear and when the individual falls, the sensor sends out a signal. Problem is that many people refuse to wear these devices. There are many reasons for this but if the device is not worn it is on little or no use. If a person had Alexa in the house, and they fall, they could signal the device and ask it to call 911 or a friend.

Alexa or similar devices can and are used by seniors to stay socially connected, to increase their cognitive abilities and to help when they fall and also help them develop a physical activity regime.

Holistic aging is a concept that builds on the above technology focus areas and adds new dimensions. In holistic aging, there are six key wellness dimensions, that constitute holistic aging takes into consideration: physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional and vocational.

The physical aspect is related to the body, and in particular, the ailments of aging: decreased strength, feeble health, increased vulnerability to falls, physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, and the inability to cope with the physical stresses and strains of daily life and activities of daily living.

We are social beings, and new research shows that loneliness can be very harmful to your health. We exist in a community, with others, and for others. We have a need to belong to a community, to have deep, close, intimate relationships — the social aspect — is crucial to the development of our social health, not only when we are young but as we age.

The intellectual aspect of the person directly affects our capability for cognitive reasoning, and the actions of our will, which impacts our ability to perform the activities of daily living. Many seniors are afraid of Dementia and holistic aging take into account, the idea that we need to be intellectually stimulated

As we age, many seniors want to “hedge their bets”, those who were not religious may take a greater interest in this side of living as they age. The spiritual aspect has an effect on our wellbeing and health. No holistic approach towards caring for the elderly can possibly ignore the profound impact of spirituality on the elderly.

If society and caregivers were to always have in mind the wellbeing of the elderly, it would be essential to explore (or to have us explore) our interior life. As we explore our emotions, we want those who we are in touch with to empathize with even our most concealed inner emotions when we express them.

As we age, many of us find fulfillment in making a sincere, disinterested gift of themselves to others. Hence the importance of the vocational aspect of holistic aging. When we accomplish our vocation and mission in life, we feel a serene, peaceful joy that can permeate our whole being.

The concept of holistic aging combined with technology makes the future seem very uplifting and bright.

Walking as a creative exercise

Walking for exercise is something I try to do on a now semi-regular basis. I enjoy the solitude that walking allows and the opportunity to think, but I never considered walking as a creative enterprise. Maria Popova at Brain Pickings (is “her one-woman labor of love — a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why. Mostly, it’s a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually — and an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life. Founded in 2006 as a weekly email that went out to seven friends and eventually brought online, the site was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive in 2012”) did and a post talks about the creativity of walking. I can do no better than to quote her writing about walking.

“Every walk is a sort of crusade,” Thoreau wrote in his manifesto for the spirit of sauntering. And who hasn’t walked — in the silence of a winter forest, amid the orchestra of birds and insects in a summer field, across the urban jungle of a bustling city — to conquer some territory of their interior world?

Artist Maira Kalman sees walking as indispensable inspiration: “I walk everywhere in the city. Any city. You see everything you need to see for a lifetime. Every emotion. Every condition. Every fashion. Every glory.” For Rebecca Solnit, walking “wanders so readily into religion, philosophy, landscape, urban policy, anatomy, allegory, and heartbreak.”

Five years after publishing The Wind in the Willows, Grahame penned a beautiful short essay for a commemorative issue of his old boarding school magazine. Titled “The Fellow that Goes Alone” and only ever published in Peter Green’s 1959 biography Kenneth Grahame (public library), it serenades “the country of the mind” we visit whenever we take long solitary walks in nature.

With an eye to “all those who of set purpose choose to walk alone, who know the special grace attaching to it,” Grahame writes:

Nature’s particular gift to the walker, through the semi-mechanical act of walking — a gift no other form of exercise seems to transmit in the same high degree — is to set the mind jogging, to make it garrulous, exalted, a little mad maybe — certainly creative and suprasensitive, until at last it really seems to be outside of you and as if it were talking to you whilst you are talking back to it. Then everything gradually seems to join in, sun and the wind, the white road and the dusty hedges, the spirit of the season, whichever that may be, the friendly old earth that is pushing life firth of every sort under your feet or spell-bound in a death-like winter trance, till you walk in the midst of a blessed company, immersed in a dream-talk far transcending any possible human conversation. Time enough, later, for that…; here and now, the mind has shaken off its harness, is snorting and kicking up heels like a colt in a meadow.

In a sentiment which, today, radiates a gentle admonition against the self-defeating impulse to evacuate the moment in order to capture it — in a status update, in an Instagram photo — Grahame observes: Not a fiftieth part of all your happy imaginings will you ever, later, recapture, note down, reduce to dull inadequate words; but meantime the mind has stretched itself and had its holiday

I highly recommend Maria Popova at Brain Pickings her writing is always fun to read and challenging for the mind and the soul.

Working longer also good for your health?

Did you know that people aged 55 and over made up 36% of the working-age population in 2016? I did not, however, baby boomers are leaving the labour force in huge numbers, which, coupled with a decline in the birth rate in industrialized countries, is leading to a decline in the working-age population. This will have an impact on the economic growth and sustainability of public pension schemes and the costs of public services, in particular.

Yet, older workers have a lot to contribute to business and society in terms of productivity and knowledge. There are also many physical, psychological and social benefits to push the retirement age to later in life.

But what can employers and governments do to keep aging workers employed? A systematic review of 41 studies conducted in the United Kingdom examined what motivates older workers to remain in employment.

Three main themes emerged from the literature: the nature of work that aging workers prefer, the culture and organizational values they seek, and the measures and job adjustments that facilitate their retention.

Older workers usually have similar expectations as younger workers. They want to be recognized, respected and valued within their organization.

They want to have autonomy, as well as stimulating and varied tasks. They expect their employers to be fair by offering career development opportunities to all employees, regardless of age.

The review also revealed that older workers appreciate using their skills and competencies to act as mentors or team leaders. This helps to concretely recognize their experience, enhance their sense of being useful, foster better intergenerational relationships, and break down social isolation.

The review also highlighted that older workers face different aging-related issues such as physical and psychological limitations and illnesses. Employers who allow part-time work or fewer full-time hours, and who offer psychological support, as well as ergonomic adjustments to work equipment, help to keep older adults working longer.

The review shows that older female workers who are facing sexual harassment or social isolation at work are more likely to choose early retirement. Inclusive human resource policies and adequate management to maintain a positive work environment are paramount to support employees’ health and well-being.

Working longer can increase your pension payout

Japan recently took an interesting step when dealing with its ageing population. The Japanese government policy on the elderly released Wednesday, January 17, said people should be allowed to delay the age they start receiving public pensions, to over 70, with the government hoping they will continue to be part of the labour force even after retirement. This is similar to what Canada does with its Canada Pension Plan. In Canada, the standard age to begin receiving a CPP retirement pension is age 65, which is the month after your 65th birthday. However, you can take a reduced CPP retirement pension as early as the month after your 60th birthday. 

You can also take an increased pension if your benefit starts after reaching age 65. The amount of your pension will depend on how much and for how long you have contributed to the CPP and on your age when you want your pension to start. If you take it before age 65, your pension will be reduced, by up to 36% at age 60. If you take it after age 65, your pension may be larger, by up to 42% at age 70

In Japan, the elderly start receiving pensions from 65 in principle but can choose to start at any time between the ages of 60 and 70. The monthly total increases the more the starting age is delayed, which is the same as Canada.

The reason given by the government of Japan is that the general trend of uniformly seeing those aged 65 or over as elderly is losing credibility. The governments aim is to create an ageless society where people of all generations can be active according to their wishes.

One of the keys to this ageless society is the expansion of the right to choose when to receive a public pension has great significance in a changing society If individuals can choose to delay retirement and get more money on a monthly basis later in life, it could give them a feeling of security about living longer and one of the side benefits is less money being paid to seniors by the government over time.

The new policy is being formulated as the nation’s population demographic ages in an unprecedented manner amid a declining birthrate. In 2025, one in every three people in Japan is expected to be 65 or older, compared to 1 in 6 in the USA and 1 in 4 in Canada

In 2004 the government adjusted pension payments based on the average life expectancy and the number of people of working age. The introduction of this 2004 law had already decreased the amount that seniors can collect from pensions.

All western countries are faced with super-ageing societies and the current social security system should be reformed. In Canada, we are encouraging people to take their pension later as they do in Japan. In Canada, we are also increasing the amount of money people pay into the Canada Pension Plan so they will be able to collect more when they retire. In Japan, the government is taking steps to facilitate re-employment of the elderly, including offering loans from the government-affiliated Japan Finance Corp. for those who want to start businesses and setting up consultation desks for seniors at Hello Work public job placement offices. The outline contains a numerical target to increase the rate of employment among those aged 60 to 64 — to 67 percent in 2020, up from 63.6 percent as of 2016.

The government will also promote measures to enhance seniors’ well-being and reduce their need for nursing care, while steps to prevent their isolation in communities have also been included in the outline.

Despite the range of new policies, convincing people to forgo retirement may be a difficult task and the approach they are taking is not working. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has admitted that only a small number of seniors have chosen to delay retirement so far. By encouraging people to work longer both Canada and Japan are using interesting techniques to keep pension costs under control. The question is will seniors pay into the idea of working longer for a bigger payout?