Session 8: Families and Seniors: Across the Generations
Monday, October 29

Major Themes to Be Covered

1. Major demographic shifts will lead to greater numbers of older persons and increased longevity. Population and individual aging will create challenges and opportunities: social, cultural, political, psychological and spiritual.

2. The United States is in the midst of a demographic revolution that will dramatically alter our national character. Serving families and seniors, across generations and preparing for an aging society, will be one important test of our greatness.

3. Understanding the demographic imperative and its impact on individuals, families and communities requires an understanding of the historical and social evolution of attitudes, values and the role of older persons in a nation imbued with values of individualism and age-centered approaches to public and private life.

4. An underlying premise of the new aging is the need to utilize conceptual frameworks - cohort analysis, seniors as national resources, paradigm shifts - and strategic planning to identify novel approaches for more family and community-centered programs and public policies.

5. The development of community and family-based programs for older persons and their families is hampered by the proliferation of laws, regulations, programs and categorically based public policies (federal, state, local) that create disincentives for intergenerational communities.

6. A key task of successful family-centered community building is the discovery of meaningful relationships with people of all ages and viewing children and seniors as both agents and beneficiaries of development.

7. Creating a more intergenerational and family and community-based society for elders and their families can draw on existing innovative and model programs. Such programs and best practices exist and can be replicated with effective advocacy, marketing and community organizing.

8. In an increasingly diverse society, we can draw lessons and examples from ethnic and immigrant groups both abroad and in the United States, as they struggle to retain their traditions of filial responsibility.

Students Will Learn

1. How demographic changes are leading to more people surviving into old age and the special challenges facing the "oldest old" and their families.

2. That the politics of aging and the role of older persons as politically influential groups have altered how government, public policy and communities are responding to aging.

3. To understand the complex array of programs, benefits and agencies at all levels of government and how current debates over entitlement reform signal profound changes in how society views older persons and longevity.

4. To develop a conceptual ability to asses the short- and long-term implications of a nation living longer and with the presence of cohorts reflecting different values, ideals and predilections about their role vis-a-vis family, community and society.

5. How successful intergenerational programs and successful community building can make a difference in the lives of older persons and their families and enhance the quality of life for the young and the old and lessen competition for public and private resources among generations.

6. How to identify and promote new strategies, policies and practices needed to foster the type of family and community partnerships that are essential to addressing the needs of the elderly and of communities.

7. About a paradigm shift necessary to redefine who is "old" and how generations view each other; reconceptualize the design and delivery of services to older persons and their families and rethink retirement and planning for a longer life span.

8. About the pressing current and future needs of the elderly and aging baby boomers including caregiving, housing, transportation and health care.

Required Readings

Binstock RH, Day CL. 1996. Aging and politics (pp. 362-387). In: RH Binstock, LK George (Eds), Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, Fourth Edition. Academic Press.

The Boomers are Coming: Challenges of Aging in the New Millennium. Hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress. First Session, Washington, DC, November 8, 1999. Serial No. 106-20.

Cornman JM, Kingson ER. 1996. Trends, issues, perspectives, and values for the aging of the baby boom cohorts. The Gerontologist, 36(1):15-26.

Torres-Gil FM, Villa V. 2000. Social policy and the elderly (pp. 209-220). In: J Midgley, MB Tracy, M Livermore (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Policy. Sage Publications.