But in the right circumstances they repay this investment with extended working careers and more self-reliant, independent living. Certainly, older people may need help in terms of pensions, health and social care and infrastructure. Society has been slow to embrace the positive aspects of longevity and to see older people as a resource. The 20th century has seen phenomenal increases in longevity and in our understanding of challenges linked with population ageing. Social policy responses to increases in longevity This blog introduces a paper that provides insights into this by looking at the impact of life cycle transitions on vulnerabilities and resilience in old age. This demonstrates the need for timely interventions that either mitigate the adverse impacts, or amplify the positive effects, of early life experiences. Older people do not suddenly become vulnerable: there is clear evidence that their vulnerability bears the long-term marks of early life experiences. But while older age has always been associated with vulnerability, these vulnerabilities can be mitigated, when modern societies respond appropriately. The gist, though, is that all lives involve childhood adolescence and coming of age and gradually ageing while accumulating experiences along the way.
Hinduism identifies life stages from early age, when one pursues chaste studentship, through to the age at which signs of ageing appear (grand parenthood). Shakespeare spoke about life stages from the ‘mewling and puking’ babe to old age, rather graphically, if negatively, portrayed as ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’ (i). Of course, the idea of life stages is not new. Rowntree was amongst the first to formalise the concept of the life cycle of poverty, and its economic and social challenges, from early childhood (when economic dependency is a given) to when we are too old to work (and thus at risk of poverty). While our lives are all different, we share stages of life that are common to all of us.