{"id":1193,"date":"2012-07-04T00:55:37","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T04:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2012-07-04T00:55:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T04:55:37","slug":"aging-a-collective-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/2012\/07\/04\/aging-a-collective-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Aging: A Collective Response"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYT By PAULA SPAN\u00a0June 25, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the things I appreciate about the new book \u201cIndependent for Life: Homes and Neighborhoods for an Aging America\u201d is the sheer amount of information it collects in one handsomely designed paperback.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When it comes to the issue of aging in place, or coming as close as possible to that sometimes elusive goal, you may have previously encountered some of these ideas, findings and case studies in journals or on various Web sites (and in this blog) over the past few years. But few of us can track all those developments, suggestions and experiments, so it\u2019s useful to have so much knowledge assembled here.<\/p>\n

Published by the University of Texas Press with support from several foundations, and edited by Henry Cisneros, a former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and two senior researchers from the Stanford Center on Longevity, \u201cIndependent for Life\u201d gathers stellar contributors from a variety of fields. The authors research many aspects of aging, yes, but they\u2019re also experts in economics and finance, technology, architecture and interior design, housing development, city planning and, not least, politics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to hear from a contractor who retrofits homes, an urban planner discussing neighborhood walkability, and the mayor of Chattanooga explaining, after public officials agreed to spend a day in wheelchairs, how the city has improved access and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to come up with better approaches to the challenges (and opportunities) of an aging population, we\u2019re going to need these sorts of pragmatists and their brainchildren.<\/p>\n

Which leads to the second strength of \u201cIndependent for Life\u201d: In a universe where individuals and their families are expected to shoulder so much responsibility with so little coordinated help, the authors and editors clearly see responding to unprecedented, seismic demographic change as a collective social issue.<\/p>\n

The book includes long lists of ways to make one household safer and more pleasant for elderly occupants with physical or cognitive limitations, but it doesn\u2019t stop there. How can we adapt whole neighborhoods and communities? How do we pay for that? What kind of political strategies and alliances will help move us in that direction?<\/p>\n

Permit me a boomer metaphor. Most books on these subjects take the implicit perspective that providing good lives for old people happens family by family: to take the Shirelles slightly out of context, \u201cBaby It\u2019s You.\u201d These authors favor the Beatles\u2019 \u201cAll Together Now,\u201d and that\u2019s a welcome view.<\/p>\n

And, yes, I do remember that the Beatles also recorded \u201cBaby It\u2019s You.\u201d It\u2019s a metaphor.<\/p>\n

Paula Span is the author of \u201cWhen the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYT By PAULA SPAN\u00a0June 25, 2012 One of the things I appreciate about the new book \u201cIndependent for Life: Homes and Neighborhoods for an Aging America\u201d is the sheer amount of information it collects in one handsomely designed paperback. When … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40871,41276,41278],"tags":[40864,43343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/eldercare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}