Aging

The articles written by Emanuel and Silverstone present two classic viewpoints representative of the medical approach to patient care vs. the social work approach. The medical approach is to tell a patient what is good for them and then to do everything they can to arrange services/treatments that will point the patient in that direction.The social work approach is to be patient-centered: to listen carefully to what the patient says that they want, and then support them in achieving their goal. It is no wonder then, following these two different approaches, that Emanuel is instructing us all to give up the ghost at 75 while Silverstone is suggesting that we all live in our own homes for as long as possible.

I’ve broken up Emmanuel’s argument into three main parts for myself, two of which I disagree with, and one of which I agree with.

(Sorry this is late. I thought I responded to this earlier in the week but my post is nowhere to be found so I am writing it again.)

I am constantly heartened by the ideas expressed by members of this class. This is a caring, insightful, critical-thinking group of people with very expanded humanitarian world views. As a person approaching the early range of “old age” as it is defined, I am looking down the barrel of what possibly awaits me within the next decade or so. Therefore it is encouraging to imagine that those graduates emerging will take part in influencing social policy and programs and hopefully return to person-in-environment centered social work as is mentioned in Silverstone’s paper.

"Why I Hope to Die at 75" clearly describes some of the challenges faced by aging adults in the United States that were mentioned in the Silverstone article. Emanuel describes the body's tendency towards disease and deterioration as people grow older. Emanuel describes how mental processing and physical recovery occur at slower rates as people age which the Silverstone article addresses as an important factor to consider when working with older adults. Additionally, both Emanuel and Silverstone touch upon the concepts of loss and control in later life. Emanuel claims that living too long is a loss, and Silverstone echoes this sentiment as she encourages social workers to be cognizant of the numerous losses experiences in old age.

Emanuel focuses his arguments regarding reasons for dying at 75 around being able bodied and having the mind of a young person. His arguments fail to consider the lived experiences of aging individuals. Although activities and interactions with others do change as we age, writing off these changes as inherently deterimental to the lived experienced and how others experience the elderly is problematic. Emanuel's focus on ingenuity, creativity, and the ability to thrive professionally is interesting. From my perspective, as individuals age and live longer they are hopefully able to focus less on work and more time on interpersonal relationships. He dismisses this, however, stating that interpersonal relationships are primarily burdensome to others as people age.

First of all I find 'Why I hope to die at 75' to not only be classist like smalina, peter, and hummingbird spoke about but also very ableist. He perpetuates this idea that being disabled in anyway is the worst possible thing that could happen to a human instead of realizing that disablity is envitable for all humans. Also, his generalizations about others lives is very hetero normative in that he constantly refers to marriage and having children and grandchildren as markers of a fulfilled life.

I strongly agree with smalina and peter when it comes to the Emmanuel piece – he assumes such normative standards of time and progressions of life that he leaves no room for those outside of hetero class-privileged existence to follow a different life course. His valuing of life seems in-line entirely with "productivity" – a concept that is incredibly capitalistically based. I agree that Emmanual seems to fall under the category of those who does not fully believe that "the older adult [is] an individual in his or her own right" (Silverstone 2005). In fact, he seems to be doing quite the opposite of what Siverstone supports; rather than approach older adults as individuals, he looks at them as a cohesive group with the same needs and experiences, which is simply not the case.

Like Peter, I found Emanuel's piece to be incredibly frustrating and offensive. The basis of his argument rests on the assumption that the age of 75 itself marks a point in every individual's life that is comparable--a view that is clearly a result of his own privileges as a white, apparently middle or upper-middle class straight man. One of the first points Emanuel brings up is the idea that, by the age of 75, he will already have experienced the richest experiences life has to offer. Perhaps, if his goals are as grandious and tangible as climing Mount Kilimanjaro, this is the case for him--but it is certainly not the case for many people in the same class and race categories as himself, let alone those who would never have access to such opportunities.