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The Periodic Midlife/Longlife Update E-newsletter October 2005
The Periodic Midlife/Longlife Update E-newsletter is devoted to sharing information and enhancing excellence in ongoing faith and holistic formation for maturing adults from midlife through end of life.
Bill Prather, Founder and Director of Partners In Pastoral Care seeks to provide members with an ongoing flow of practical information that leaders/models can use directly with adults of all ages. Training is also offered through the educational arm of Partners in Pastoral Care.
All opinions expressed herein are those of the author. Permission is granted to reproduce this issue in whole or in part as long as its source is identified.
“Even in old age (the godly) will still produce fruit and be vital and green” (Psalm 92:14 TLB)
In This Issue:
The New “Midlife Adults”: Ages 45-69
When ‘OLD’ Begins
New Technologies Help Seniors Stay Independent
Book review: Our Help in Ages Past; the black church’s ministry among the elderly
Staying in Control
Economics, Demographics Redefining Retirement
1. In an article that appeared in the Enrichment Journal, A Journal for Pentecostal Ministry from the Assemblies of God, www.enrichmentjournal.ag.org author Charles Arn makes the point, among others, that there has emerged a new stage of life he calls the Middle Adults. I call them Midlifers. Arn begins their age at 50 and I begin their life at 45. He says these persons are often partially or fully retired, and do not consider themselves as seniors. He claims that churches need to do more to attract this group because the existing “senior group” will not. He gives us four points to ponder about middle adults:
Middle adults do not perceive themselves as seniors; indeed they are repelled by the term.
Most senior groups are saturated. By this he means that without knowing or trying most senior groups close themselves to new members, and certainly do not recruit middle adults into their ranks.
When a church has only one senior adult group, that group tends to attract only one narrow slice of the mosaic of persons over 55 years of age and excludes the rest.
Most senior adult groups do not prioritize outreach to prospective new members. Dr. Arn identifies Middle Adults as a new ministry opportunity, an opportunity that broadens the church’s existing senior adult ministry.
He offers five steps toward establishing a separate Middle Adult ministry in a church:
Establish a task force of five to seven middle adults.
Survey the midlife adults in your church.
Conduct demographic analysis of your community.
Plan two high-visibility events targeted for and promoted specifically to middle adults in your church and/or community.
Survey the people who attend the event to learn more about their life interests.
2. In a study directed by Ken Dyuchtwald, and Harris International, entitled Future of Retirement has some interesting key findings.
Although respondents had differing opinions on when old age begins – with those ages 18-39 seeing elderhood starting at 58, and people 60 or older pegging 74 as the starting point – 73% of all survey subjects said that mental and physical declines define older age. Additionally, 48% said the key factor was age itself, suggesting uncertainly among many respondents.
The major worries participants expressed about old age included becoming ill (68%), losing memory (65%), being a family burden (52%) and outliving their money (40%).
3. New home-monitoring systems with temperature and motion detectors help people like Theresa Teel remotely care for her 81-year-old mother, Virginia — and they help people like Virginia to keep living independently, according to the Rocky Mountain News. Of course, I see wonderful opportunities here for those churches who are serious about taking pastoral care to the next level. Think about how the church might become a dynamic caregiver with the use of this technology!
Twelve times a day, a system called ADT Quietcare updates Virginia's status into a central monitoring site so that Theresa can check up on her mother via the Internet and respond if anything goes awry. When nearly blind Virginia turned down the temperature control on her thermostat by accident, she couldn't see well enough to fix it. An in-home sensor noted the drop in temperature, Theresa got a call on her cell phone, and she went to her mother's apartment to fix the problem.
Virginia's system consists of five small sensors installed in the bathroom, outside the bathroom, outside the bedroom, on the refrigerator door and near the medicine cabinet. A sixth sensor monitors temperature. The sensors send information wirelessly to a compact "base station" near the telephone, which transmits the data over the phone line to a service provider who creates a computer-generated baseline of normal behavior.
After the first week, the system notes any changes in the pattern that might indicate ill health — such as the senior spending extended time in the bathroom, or a senior's failure to open the medicine cabinet or refrigerator. Daily status reports are posted on the Web for family members. Emergencies are routed through ADT's 1,200-employee customer service center, where a highly trained team springs into action. First, a team member calls the home, then the family and finally emergency medical services.
One upshot of such systems is that the church become closer when they share caregiving responsibilities. Isn’t this exactly what happened when the church was formed in the book of Acts? And they have more information to ask fact-based questions. Instead of, "Mary, how are you feeling?" it becomes, "Hey, Mary, I noticed you got up late today."
The potential for such services is huge: An estimated 22.4 million households are involved in giving care to people 50 or older. My question is, what about the petitioner who has no family close or interested?
4. Can you imagine how much richer, stronger, and more faithful your church would be with a ministry that showcased the wisdom of its seniors? Bobby Joe Saucer challenges black churches to act upon the needs of the people whose sacrifices laid the foundation for those very communities. Offering a call t value the past and to welcome what the elderly have to offer. Our Help in Ages Past is filled with easy-to-implement ideas that offer lasting joy, such as Adopt-A-Senior Programs, Senior Citizens Emphasis Day, and intergenerational story telling. Suggestions also include long-term projects that can appreciably change the lives of the elderly, such as establishing an adult day-care center, building low-cost housing, and developing a financial services center. (From the back cover.)
Includes:
General principles of ministry among the elderly/
Success stories and creative ideas.
Guidelines for inviting seniors to share their stories.
5. “Fewer than five percent of older persons have full-blown clinical depression; the rate jumps to 50 percent for those who are physically sick, and 70 percent for those living in skilled nursing facilities.” Rebecca A. Clay www.apa.org/monitor/jan/pi2.html
6. Americans are reversing what had been a nearly century-long decline in the participation of older people in the workforce.
For both workers and employers, the rising number of older workers is the result of choice and circumstance.
Workers, faced with shrinking medical and dental benefits and less generous retirement plans, find they don't have the financial resources to support themselves in retirement, so a lot more of them are returning to work.
Companies, faced with a labor gap that will rise to 4.8 million workers within 10 years and 20 million within 20 years, are seeing older workers in a new light. Older workers represent a pool of talent companies need.
Conventional wisdom used to be that employees over 50 cost companies more in terms of medical problems and missed workdays. But that may not be the case, as studies show that costs associated with older workers are about the same as those of younger workers.
Workers over 50 make up for additional health costs by being more reliable and often more productive than younger workers. An AARP survey of human resource professionals showed that 77% said that older workers have a higher level of commitment than younger workers, and 68% said it cost less or the same to train older workers compared to younger workers.
Older workers also tend to have fewer or no dependent-related health- or child-care costs, and they require lower training and recruitment costs, according to Gail Jern, human resources manager for Westaff.
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