The
2018 theme of United
Nations International Day of Older Persons is “Celebrating Older Human Rights
Champions“. What better way to celebrate this Day than by celebrating
the older people around the world who dedicate their lives to championing human
rights? They are as diverse as the society in which they live: from older
people advocating for human rights at the grass root and community level to
high profile figures on the international stage.
Each
and every one demands equal respect and acknowledgement for their dedication
and commitment to contributing to a world free from fear and free from want.
The key aims of the day can be found
here.
There are also some excellent resources launched as part of this
day including a focus in the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists animation
to encourage the building of muscle mass in older age, Help Age International Wall
of Photos celebrating Older Age HR champions and the launch of localised
age friendly challenges, such as this one in Greater
Manchester.
In thinking about this important celebration, I have been asking
myself how do we ‘own’ older age in a way that makes the very key issues
associated with this important day relevant to each and everyone of us? I have
grown up being very influenced by the power of the politics of identity – the
influential movements in my life to date have reflected on securing changes to
society that will improve the position of groups within society that I was
either part of, or could understand through powerful personal testimony.
This meant I could relate to the cause and through this
understanding, I could ‘walk in the shoes’ of people who identified with that
group. I am left wondering then, that why is it that I do not find the same
level of ‘politics’ surrounding this key part of our population. The challenge
for those promulgating theories of change around older age, is that whilst many
will advocate from the sides, the same ‘ownership’ of the agenda appears not to
exist.
Ageing, in the context of ‘older’, sits in position of
‘other’ in many peoples minds, whilst at the same time being part of everyone’s
future. I have been very struck by this disconnect in recent months, whilst I
have been supporting my mum to move into retirement housing; I am convinced,
she remains of the view that her greatest concern is how will she relate to
‘all the old people there’. She is 85 and distinctly frail – but clearly young
(or distinctly not ‘old’) in heart and mind.
The solution for many successful movements, be it feminism,
disability rights, LGBT rights – has often been about reclamation. About taking
back the label and reclaiming it as a positive badge of honour, rather than an
external label of rebuke or reduction. Lots of descriptions of older people
apply honour – ‘a canopy of wisdom’, a ‘wealth of lived experience’, but they are
not regularly ‘owned’ in same way as can be found in other movements with
anthems such as Helen Reddy’s ‘I am woman’ or Maya
Angelou’s ‘Phenomenal
Woman’, or indeed mobilising mantras such as ‘Out and Proud’.
I was very interested at our international
conference earlier this year that a number of international delegates
talked about how change was initiated for older people in their countries – and
that was through older people mobilising and descending on town halls and
decision makers.
I tried to envisage the impact of that on the way that
politics happens in the UK and wondered how it might work with ageing. I was
reading the recent Age
UK report on Ageing and Loneliness, and struck by the fact that the report
is talking about anyone of 50 or over. In addition, when we talk about older people’s
specialist housing, the entry point for this in planning terms is 55. In the UK
if we use the Age UK research stratification that we should be thinking about
how services should be shaped and framed to meet the needs of those of 50 and
over, we are talking about over 33% of the UK population according to ONS
figures.
If all those of 50 and over stood loud and proud and said I
am now part of the ageing population and I need services to better reflect my
needs, then it would be clear that we would need a very different focus in
policy making. All the time we think about ageing as something that has not yet
arrived, we let key decision makers off the hook.
As International Day for Older Persons comes and goes, it is
right that we should celebrate the ‘Older Peoples Human Rights champions’ and
building from that, we should think about how each and every one of us can
ourselves be Older Peoples Human Rights champions. As I tip ever closer to 50
myself, I am ready to adopt a new form of personal politics that puts my age as
a strength and asset – not because someone else says it is – but because I own
it as a powerful part of me. Anyone want to join me?
Final Note
As party conference season draws to a close, we are reminded
of a very full political agenda over the coming months. We should be seeing the
NHS 10 Year Plan, the Social Care Green Paper alongside the ongoing Brexit
negotiations. Amidst all that, the Chancellor announced last week that the
budget date had been brought forward. So – budget watchers – when you reset
your clocks at the end of the month – it will be a reminder for you that the
very next day is Budget Day – the 29th October 2018.