The Culture of Aging Philip B. Stafford, Ph.D. Indiana University

The Culture of AgingPhilip B. Stafford, Ph.D.

Indiana University

Improving How We Live and AgeA Status Report on Aging in Greater

Kansas CityMay 15, 2012

The New Culture of AgingPhilip B. Stafford, Ph.D.

Indiana University

Improving How We Live and AgeA Status Report on Aging in Greater

Kansas CityMay 15, 2012

Tom Haney

Aging is not about time and the body, but about relationships… and the meaning of place.

Not “When is old age?”

but“Where is old age?”

“I’d like to manage at home as long as I can.”

“Home is where, when you get

there they’ve got to take you in…”

Robert Frost

A deep map of

home

Opal

• Home as a repository of meaning• Home as a financial cushion• Home as a power base• Home as an aesthetic, reflection

of self• Home as a practical support• Home as a node in a social

network• Home as a verb, not a noun

A Broader Notion of Home

House or Apt.

Yard

Neighborhood

Community

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

The Medicalization of Old Age

Milton

“Health and disability refer to the balance between

personal capability and environmental demand.”

…or aspirations.

Verbrugge & Jette, 1993

“Community is the smallest unit of health.”

Wendell Berry, Health is Membership In Another Turn of the Crank

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care Reimbursement for Chronic Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine

Disease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age Aging as a natural, entropic process

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine

Quality of remaining years

Disease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease research Research in basic biology of

agingCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCure CareReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and corrective Preventive DiagnosisPatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosis Function PatientServices

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatient Community member Services

Clinical Perspective Home and Community Perspective

Reimbursement for Acute Care

Disease model of old age

Longevity and Anti-Aging MedicineDisease researchCureReactive and correctiveDiagnosisPatientServices Community development

Our work should help create good places to

grow up and grow old…livable, lifetime

communities

•Accessible bldg. design•Shopping w/in close proximity•Drugstores, grocery,& hospitals w/in close proximity•Recreation opportunities•Safe, well-designed sidewalks •Complete Streets

•Design on a human scale•Provide choices•Mixed-use development•Preserve urban centers•Vibrant public spaces•Protect environmental resources•Conserve landscapes•Design matters

Livable Communities

AARP “Livable Communities”

AIA “Principles for Livable Communities”

ELDER-CENTRIC VILLAGE MOVEMENTEnvironments for Aging 2011 | March 22, 2011

36©2011 Morrison Kattman Menze, Inc.

What does it all mean?

• New housing options, including aging in place

• New mobility options• New choices in health care

• Housing• Transportation• Health Care• Education• Commerce• Faith Communities• Land Use Planning

What will it require?

“Participation… provides a collaborative process by which community inhabitants reach

common goals, engage in collective decisions, and create places, and these places, in turn, serve as

material expressions of their collective efforts.”

Feldman, Roberta M. & Westphal, Lynne M. 2000. Sustaining human settlement: A challenge for the new millennium. Great Britain: Urban International Press.

Old people everywhere.

Christopher Alexander

Where do the children play?

Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens)

Contact information

•Philip B. Stafford, Ph.D.•Director, Center on Aging & Community, Indiana Institute on Disability and CommunityIndiana University•2853 East Tenth St., Bloomington, IN 47408•812-855-2163•[email protected]

www.lifetimecommunities.org