Older People and the Last Gift of Time
Celia Weisman argued powerfully that ageing is not a disease. This view underpins United Nations policy on ageing, articulated in the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. It is a plan directed to ensuring that `persons everywhere are able to age with security and dignity and to continue to participate in their societies as citizens with full rights'. Ageing is a field where the effects of social and economic changes are crystal clear. Demographic change that has shifted the balance towards ageing populations is a worldwide phenomenon, the pace of change greater in developing countries. Older people, diverse in their life courses and opportunities, share the effects of societal disruption, migration and unequal distribution of resources in a world where globalisation strongly influences national policies and the very fabric of civil society. Retirement from employment has been described as `the last gift of time', enabling people to choose their priorities and interests for the last years of life. For older people who are educated, healthy and financially secure, time is indeed a gift. But there is abundant evidence that to be poor, sick or unemployed in older age does not begin to engage with this concept of choosing one's future. Time becomes not the last gift, but the final deprivation. This paper will consider social policy directions and the issues therein through the United Nations plan, its goals of development, health and ensuring enabling and supportive environments, keeping the tensions between older people's needs and public policy central to the discussion.