— Older individuals are those who sit on knowledge and experience, states Malcolm Fisk, professor of aging and digital health at De Montfort University in Great Britain, for the magazine Iso Focus.
Fisk has also run several pilot projects for senior-friendly communities.
— They are incredibly adaptable. They have to be to deal with the loss of income that comes with retirement, grief, disability and the prejudice of others.
Wrong dish?
It’s lunch time in Tokyo. The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders is busy. Graying waiters with stylish aprons rush between the tables. The food they serve is reported to be delicious – steak, rice dishes and traditional Japanese dumplings – but guests don’t always get the dish they ordered.
The pub only employs serving staff with dementia. About every fourth order is incorrect, but the food is delivered with smiles.
— The restaurant is not about right or wrong. The important thing here is the interaction with people living with dementia, said the initiator Shiro Oguni in an interview on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The popular and rewritten social experiment is a collaboration with a nursing home. It aims to raise awareness of dementia, encourage tolerance and break the isolation of the elderly.
Elderly Japanese people rest in the shade of a tree in central Tokyo. Successful match
Meanwhile in the French capital Paris: 21-year-old theater student Jeanne pours tea for herself and her host Brigitte, 91. The duo, who choose not to give their surnames, have lived together for three months and cherish both for the news channel RFI how satisfied they are.
— We complement each other. . . We laugh a lot together, says the student.
Brigitte, who is a widow and not very mobile on her own, is happy for the stimulation of having a student in her home and for the help she receives. Jeanne, for her part, is not only attracted by the low rent. Being together in the home makes her feel good and feels meaningful, she says.
The two were matched together by the organization Le Pari Solidaire which, together with sister organization Cohabilis, arranges around 1,600 cohabitations between seniors and young people annually. The aim is twofold: to break the isolation of the elderly and to deal with the lack of student accommodation in France.
Style icon and businesswoman Iris Apfel photographed a few years ago at a gala in New York. Apfel is now 102 years old and very active. This year she did a collection collaboration with Swedish H & M. Many centenarians
Initiatives like those in Paris and Tokyo will become more common in a world where we are getting older. In 2050, a whopping 22 percent of the world’s population is estimated to be over 60, according to a forecast from the World Health Organization (WHO). And the 100-plus are expected to be 3.7 million.
Many of them will be healthy, if fragile, and want to continue to be active. It places demands on society, healthcare and the labor market. The seniors’ needs will affect cultural offerings, gyms, housing and urban planning. When it comes to the latter, the city of New York is something of a pioneer. Last year, a huge study of how the elderly move on foot was carried out there, a study that resulted in an action plan on 17 points to make pedestrian traffic safer.
The labor market is another important area. For one thing, nursing staff and helping hands are needed to an even greater degree when the elderly are to be cared for. But many healthy elderly people will also work long after today’s retirement age, which may require more flexible employment conditions.
“People feel good about working and staying active in their old age, even if they are getting older,” says Karim Jebari, philosopher and researcher at the Institute for Future Studies.
— Japan with its elderly population becomes something of a mirror of the future for us. Initiatives such as the Wrong Orders Restaurant are good, but one must also be aware that there is a risk that communities with older populations will stagnate.
Active old age. 89-year-old Japanese Seiichi Sano surfs at Katase Nishihama, south of Tokyo. How to limit?
There are signs of this in Japan, where one in ten is now over 80. Digitization is lagging and development is slower than in many other countries, points out Jebari.
— If you have a stubborn manager who stays at his post until he or she is 87 years old, it may take time before you get to try new ideas. Older people can affect society in the form of slower development.
Such a problem is currently being dealt with, among other things, in the United States. The likely candidates for next year’s presidential election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are 80 and 77 respectively. And several members of Congress are running for re-election despite being well over 80.
There, as in several other contexts, there may be a need for restrictions on how many mandate periods a politician can serve or how long a manager can stay in his post.
Democratic minority leader in the US House of Representatives, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, photographed at a streetcar anniversary in her hometown of San Francisco. Pelosi is 83 years old and recently announced that she is running for re-election next year. Continue to meet others
But not all old people are backward. There is much to be gained by making use of the experiences of the elderly, points out Malcolm Fisk. John Rowe, professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University in New York, agrees. The 78-year-old works full-time and in an interview on the university’s website he emphasizes the importance of exercise and maintaining social engagement as a senior.
— You can either stay in working life or work as a volunteer. Both are terribly effective. . . I keep working because I find it a lot of fun. The mere thought of retiring and playing golf or lying on the sofa feels bad, he says.
In 2023, it feels like many people are thinking along the same lines. It is no wonder that interest in good aging is increasing, something that is reflected in podcasts such as Huberman Lab and the Netflix series about the world’s blue zones – the places with the most centenarians.
So, if many of us will live to be centenarians, what is the secret to successful aging? John Rowe makes three points:
— Avoid serious illness and disability, maintain cognitive and physical abilities. And be engaged in life, society and others, he says.