13 Nov, 2014
Who will support people who are ageing without children? – theguardian.com
By 2030, 2 million people are predicted to be over 65 without adult children, according to a 2014 report. This represents a huge demographic shift: approximately a quarter of people will get older without ever having had children. It’s astonishing that such a shift in society has been almost completely ignored in ageing debates. So why has this issue lacked debate?
We believe it is for a number of reasons. First, society in the UK remains ageist. While sexism, racism and homophobia are deemed unacceptable, derogatory comments and assumptions about older people pass by without remark. Older people are seen as a burden on society, lacking value or importance. The topic of older people and loneliness has received huge coverage in the press and there have been many comment pieces asking why is it that older people are so lonely? And why has society let this happen? Abuse of older people has been widely covered by the media – from the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal and Panorama to the BBC2 show Protecting our Parents, there has been a stream of reports highlighting appalling treatment of particularly frail and vulnerable older people.
Read the rest: Who will support people who are ageing without children? | Society | theguardian.com.
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