A Long Time Coming: essays on old age
Author: Joosten, Melanie
ISBN: 9781925321371
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Year First Published: 2016
Pages: 256
Dimensions: 210mm x 145mm x 20mm
Format: Paperback / softback
Description
A powerful collection of essays exploring what it means to grow old in our youth-obsessed world.
To live a long life should be a joy; to be old should not be a burden.
With improved health care and higher standards of living, each generation is living longer than the last. Governments see our ageing population as an imminent disaster, and old age as a medical problem. We are encouraged to remain active, stay healthy, and work longer - in short, to refuse becoming old. But if living longer is really about staying young, do we risk turning a blind eye to issues facing the elderly?
Weaving interviews with research and memoir, Joosten undertakes a timely and clear-sighted investigation into the housing crisis as it affects older people, the politics of nursing-home care, the difficulties of dementia, support services for Indigenous Australians, and how the burden of caring for others can fall disproportionately on women.
Moving, passionate, and urgent, A Long Time Coming is a call for empathy in a society that valorises youth and self-reliance - a profound reminder that everyone has the right to be old.
ISBN: 9781925321371
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Year First Published: 2016
Pages: 256
Dimensions: 210mm x 145mm x 20mm
Format: Paperback / softback
Description
A powerful collection of essays exploring what it means to grow old in our youth-obsessed world.
To live a long life should be a joy; to be old should not be a burden.
With improved health care and higher standards of living, each generation is living longer than the last. Governments see our ageing population as an imminent disaster, and old age as a medical problem. We are encouraged to remain active, stay healthy, and work longer - in short, to refuse becoming old. But if living longer is really about staying young, do we risk turning a blind eye to issues facing the elderly?
Weaving interviews with research and memoir, Joosten undertakes a timely and clear-sighted investigation into the housing crisis as it affects older people, the politics of nursing-home care, the difficulties of dementia, support services for Indigenous Australians, and how the burden of caring for others can fall disproportionately on women.
Moving, passionate, and urgent, A Long Time Coming is a call for empathy in a society that valorises youth and self-reliance - a profound reminder that everyone has the right to be old.
