Happiness in The Twilight Years

Old age psychiatrist Dr Julian Hughes has pointed out in his Scrubbing Up column on BBC news that it may be time to rethink our attitudes to ageing and the growing population of older people in society.

It is time that older people cease to be regarded as a burden on society and attitudes are slow to change even with the advocacy of such people as Dame Joan Bakewell.

The individual feels the passage of time with wrinkles and memory problems while the fact of an increasing older population is seen to bring economic problems in society.

Nevertheless, that ageing presents a much less pressing problem to older people than many younger people think. People often forget that older age often brings its own rewards such as happiness and contentedness.

For example, there has been a large study conducted by Newcastle University that shows a high level of positivity in 85-year-olds despite all their aches and pains and various illnesses.

Rather than casting aspersions on older people in society and regarding them as economic liabilities it is much more positive to see the contributions that older people make to the rest of society. Lately, there have been various schemes promoting communication and exchanges between older and younger people, with the result that the generations have been able to be of mutual help to each other.

Often older people, such as grandparents for example, give more to younger people than the other way round. Large numbers of over 60s are active in volunteering in various charities, our hospitals, The National Trust and the Women's Royal Voluntary Society (WRVS). All this constitutes active ageing and indeed active citizenship proving that older people should be considered an asset rather than a burden on society.

It has to be acknowledged that living to an old age is associated with various conditions of ageing such as arthritis and stroke. But many 80 plus year olds are enjoying their lives and for them longevity is a success, encouraging us to be positive about later life.

The essential thing is to get to grips with the science of ageing itself so as to be able to understand diseases such as dementia, heart disease and cancer for example.

On a deeper level we seek to make sense of our lives and find a purpose in the ageing process which as the professor says is "a matter for the arts, social sciences and humanities."

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