Women and health

Care of aging populations a global concern

By Mary Hardin

As the population ages, interest in services for the elderly is gaining more attention in the United States. As might be expected, the U.S. isn't the only country interested in quality of life issues for the elderly. The interest is global, and an IU School of Medicine faculty member is playing a role in the decision-making process which may affect 75-year-olds from Rwanda to Russia to Rhode Island.

Kathleen Hall, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Indianapolis Study of Health and Aging, recently participated as an expert in the group meeting, "Caregiving for Older Persons: Gender Dimensions," at the invitation of the Secretary General of the United Nations. The meeting was held in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 30 through Dec. 2. Eleven experts and 17 observers participated in the policy meeting.

The group developed recommendations for social policy guidelines pertaining to the care of the dependent elderly with a particular emphasis on the role of women. The experts focused on establishing recommendations for issues pertaining to informal caregiving and the reliance on women to undertake that function, along with policy issues regarding the elderly and their caregivers. The debate also focused on how to change the traditional roles and expectations of men and women in the workplace and homes when it pertains to caregiving. Women's increased participation in the workplace in all regions of the world has outpaced adjustments in perceptions, attitudes and expectations, and in the organization of the infrastructure of societies, especially with regard to caring for older persons.

In the past, family units were strengthened by the number of their offspring, which in turn provided many hands to care for aging parents. That has changed in many cultures. Families are smaller, and in today's mobilized society, adult children frequently do not live close enough to elderly relatives to be caregivers.

"The U.N. is looking at this from a global perspective," said Hall. "The aged population is growing. Older women are more apt to live longer and be poor. There is a diversity of support systems for the elderly in various countries. We were to look at those issues and come up with ways to address the needs."

The U.N. estimates that by the year 2025, more than 70 percent of the world's older population will be living in developing countries. That, coupled with the fact that the fastest growing segment of the aged population is age 80 and over, make these recommendations even more crucial.

Hall said she is not at liberty to release a complete list of recommendations at this time. However, they addressed issues such as the rights and responsibilities of the elderly and the rights of the caregivers; the fact that older women are more apt to lack family support than older men and more apt to live in poverty; a call for an increase in the pay scale for professional caregivers, and the universal inclusion of parental leave to family leave policies.

"It was such a fabulous experience to work with these people with different perspectives," Hall said of the meeting. "Learning how various cultures and societies deal with these universal problems was very interesting."

Hall was one of two American representatives. The other was Irene Hoskins, the American Association of Retired Persons representative to the U.N. at Geneva, Switzerland.

The experts were in agreement that it is the responsibility of governments to design policies and programs to provide care for dependent older persons and to support those who provide such care.

The list of recommendations developed by the experts were presented to the 42nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (March 2-13) under the agenda item "Emerging Issues." Recommendations also will contribute to the ongoing work of the U.N. program on aging and as input to the International Year of the Older Persons in 1999.