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VOLUME 6,
NUMBER 1, 2003
Globalisation
and Support in Old Age
Gail Wilson
The paper opposes collective
social support for later life to individualised activity.
It suggests that collective support can
be divided into social arrangements for sharing work over
the life course, collective support
among family members and collective support provided by
formal institutions. In this context
work includes paid and unpaid work. Family support is considered
in a cross cultural context and
so is a broader concept than is usual in the UK. Formal
collectivities are defined to include all
late life-oriented organised welfare, including pensions
and health and social care, whether state,
non-profit or commercial. Each of these collectivities
is discussed in relation to support in later
life. The effect of economic globalisation on each is outlined
but the main emphasis is on analysing
threatened support systems.
Key words: globalisation,
collective support, old age
Historical,
cross-cultural, biological and psychosocial perspectives
of ageing and the aged person
Margareth
Bondevik
The paper analyses the concept
of ageing and old age from various perspectives. From a
historical perspective, people in Antiquity and the Middle
Ages explained
the ages of
man in different schematic terms,
related to the physical causes for the processes of human
growth and decline, or related to daily,
annual or historical time. From a cross-cultural perspective,
the predominant view has been that older adults in developing
societies were better situated socially and psychologically
than their counterparts in developed societies. The process
of ageing can be seen from separate biological, psychological
and social perspectives. Regarding the individual aged
person, these mutually interactive processes, must be considered
together, along with the cultural conditions and historical
times in which they occur. Increased awareness of the positive
contributions to modern society made by the aged as upholders
of cultural heritage and traditions may help to counteract
the derogatory of references to the elderly as "the rising
tide", associating this group of the population with heavy
financial burdens on society.
Key words: ageing,
historical ageing, cross-cultural ageing, ageing theories
The addiction
to medicaments
VINKO RAZBOR©EK
The author discusses the growing
abuse of pain-killers, sedatives and sleeping pills. Elderly
people use more medicine than younger ones. They also have
worse
reactions on them. All
the mentioned medicaments are
causing addiction and the addicted person needs more and
more of them to reach the same effect.
The addiction to medicaments is also named tabletomania.
The danger of this addiction is
higher for people who are suffering from psychological
problems and for drug addicts. The healing
process of tabletomania is long-lasting.
Key words: sedatives,
sleeping pills, pain-killers, addiction, problems within
the curing process, physical problems
Fear from
ageing and methods of overcoming it
Jo¾e Ramov¹
The article is based on two
main facts. The first one is, that fear from ageing and
old-age disability is a widespread
irrational taboo in the modern western society. The second
one is that the acceptance of oneís own
old age is a condition for quality ageing and for good
intergenerational relations. The research data
and everyday experiences from introduction of intergenerational
programmes for quality ageing and good intergenerational
relations are
showing the persistence of the mentioned taboo in
oneís not self-conscious experiencing and behaviour. The
author describes rational, emotional, and social ways of
overcoming
the taboo of old
age.
Key words: ageing,
overcoming of taboo, intergenerational relations
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