Celebrate getting older, urges expert
There have never been so many older people and they are driving change in society, says University of Waikato Emeritus Professor Bevan Grant.
‘‘If you ask society about it, no one is going to say ageing is a really exciting thing because they relate it with decline, they associate it with families having to care for people so that becomes the very dominant language and language is very influential in how we think about things,’’ Grant said.
‘‘There’s still that negative overtone about older people and ageing and so on but it’s changing – it takes generations to change things but there’s never been this many older people.’’
Now living in Nelson, Grant has long been involved in the study and teaching of gerontology and is one of the speakers at the 2017 Positive Ageing Expo at the Headingly Centre in Richmond next Friday.
He said ageing had not been seen as ‘‘a cool thing’’.
‘‘Unfortunately, what I think has happened is that ageing and growing older has been too often positioned in all sorts of reports and documents, and in the public arena, as ‘a problem’ ... particularly in relation to what it will cost,’’ he said.
‘‘We should be celebrating it rather than talking about it as if it’s a problem.’’
However, the pendulum was swinging and older people themselves were behind the changing attitudes and values.
‘‘Older people have got a very strong voice and they’re stroppy – young olds and old olds alike; they can be quite stroppy,’’ Grant said.
They were part of wellinformed generations, helped shape the world ‘‘and we don’t expect anything less and we don’t want someone else organising us and telling us what to do’’.
‘‘We’ve come through a time when we haven’t been passive, we’ve come through the liberation of the 60s.’’
Events such as the Positive Ageing Expo were a constructive way to counter some of the stereotyping associated with ageing.
Older people were involved in a range of physical and rec- reational activities. Many were craftspeople, travellers, choir singers or participants in some of the huge number of community organisations.
‘‘People are living longer and they’re living very enriched lives,’’ Grant said.
The expo, which usually attracts a crowd of about 2000, is set to have more than stallholders.
As well as seminars there will be demonstrations of a range of activities including pottery, e-bikes, choir, movement and mindfulness.
Admission is free to the event, which is scheduled to run from 10am to 3pm. 70