FEATURE ARTICLE
Treasuring Our Seniors

As the Covid Pandemic took hold of the country, tracking of death rates began. It was no surprise that older Americans, those above 65 comprised the highest percentage of these deaths. In our youth obsessed culture, losing older people to a dreadful disease was not unexpected …. After All, they were OLD. Living in nursing homes or senior living facilities, “It’s not as if young people were dying”.
We beg to differ. These people are OUR people. Our clients, their families, Our Pet therapy beneficiaries, Our friends, since it is a rare client who does not become a friend.

The media focus is on the enormous financial burden seniors create for those younger people “supporting them”, that seniors will bankrupt the health care system or the social security system will collapse under the burden of a growing senior population.

What we don’t hear in the midst of all of these doomsday stories — which are not based in evidence, and are simply wrong — is how seniors contribute to society.

The fact that people live longer than ever should be celebrated as one of the biggest success stories in history.

How do seniors contribute to society? They shop, they use services (which employ people), and they pay taxes. They also volunteer; in fact, many organizations would be hard pressed to function without their older volunteers.

Seniors also give generously: they make more charitable donations per capita than any other age group.

Seniors babysit; they look after grandchildren. One can only imagine what would happen to our economy if, suddenly, no grandparents were available to look after grandchildren. How many parents would have to scramble to find other care options (already scarce) — or would have to miss work because they couldn’t find alternatives? How many soccer games or ballet classes would be missed if grandma or grandpa were not there to drive the grandchildren? Who would have the patience to pass on their wisdom to the next generation?

Seniors do housework, home maintenance and yard work — not just for themselves, but for others as well. They provide transportation or run errands for others. They provide emotional support and friendship, like the senior who looks in on a house-bound friend to make sure that everything is alright and stays for a chat.

Seniors provide care for spouses or friends. They may not think of themselves as caregivers but without them, what would happen?

Other family members are not always available to help. They may live too far away or have health problems themselves. There are organizations that can help out — but the bulk of these supports are made possible because of volunteers.

And the volunteers are typically seniors.

Then there is the husband who takes care of his wife who has Alzheimer’s. Because of him, she is able to stay in familiar surroundings for as long as possible. In addition, she is not a “burden” on the health care system.

Rather than creating catastrophic visions of the impact of the “gray tsunami,” it would help if we took a more balanced approach to the aging population. How do we provide supports in communities to make them as age-friendly as possible so that seniors can continue to contribute to society and have the best quality of life?

Acknowledging seniors’ contributions would help to make ours a more age-inclusive society that does not pit one generation against the other. It would also be a more accurate reflection of how most of us engage with each other in our everyday lives.

Note: Adapted from articles in Canadian publications Windsor Star, Calgary Sun and Winnipeg Free Press ■