More inclusion for the elderly
"The age structure of the UK population is gradually becoming older. There are over 10 million people aged 65 and over1, and this means an 80 per cent increase over six decades. The number of people older than 65 is projected to increase by 23 per cent compared to that of 2010 and to reach the alarming amount of 17 million in 2035. This means that there will be 4 million more people aged 65+ than there will be of those under 16s. During the last years the average number of people aged 65 and over who were resident in communal establishments in Great Britain was around 4,5 per cent. In most of the cases these numbers are indexes of social isolation and loneliness for those who cannot pay for private nursing homes.
Unfortunately, this is not exclusively a problem for the UK. The United Nations Population Division has estimated and projected at both the country and world region level, these trends are crucially important for all countries. However, there are some exceptions as various countries have taken innovative actions to help produce solutions. The Inter-generational Learning Centre2 located within Providence Mount St. Vincent in West Seattle decided to put a pre-school in their nursing home to ensure that elderly folk are happy. That has made a huge difference in the lives of both the elderly and the young despite the disparity in their years.
Moreover, following a successful pilot in the North East, another scheme has launched in London. Backed by both David Cameron and Boris Johnson, the project dubbed HenPower3, involves lonely elderly people who are being given hens to look after. The original project was created by creative ageing charity Equal Arts to deal with social isolation, reduce depression and boost people’s wellbeing.
In the wake of such initiatives, Accademia Apulia is organising the annual photography award to raise awareness on the alarming issue of social inclusion of the ever growing elderly population. This year’s award, entitled imAge, aims to challenge the existing stereotypes of older people, and to underline the importance of their inclusion into today’s society. The issue related to the ageing of the world population has been ignored for too long and this year the photographers will have the chance to capture the attention of the crowd showing the brightest side of being old."
1: “Population ageing: statistics” by Tom Rutherford
2: More on Mount St Vincent here
3: More on 'Hen Power' here
