Australia’s New Aged: Issues for young and old (Australian Experience) (PDF)

By Mary Johnson

The general notion of our society becoming older is often a source of anxiety for many about what the future holds. There’s a fear that our youth of today will have to struggle in their senior years to support the multitude of aging baby boomers who have long passed their productive lives. However, Australia’s New Aged presents a more nuanced perspective on this belief, highlighting that it is part truth and part fiction. While we may see an increase in the proportion of elderly individuals in the next couple of decades, this is a temporary circumstance and the elderly of tomorrow will probably have a different experience than their parents. In this book, the authors examine public policy for the aged within the framework of an increasingly vocal and active elderly population, coupled with cutbacks in health and welfare spending. They argue that policymakers have fallen into a trap of adopting a ‘social issue’ approach to aging, assuming that the elderly constitute a homogeneous, disadvantaged group with shared interests. Through analyzing different cases, they pinpoint the negative impacts of misguided policy in terms of structural insensitivity and harsh outcomes. Moving forward, they suggest that policymakers, as well as the aged care industry, need to be more adaptable and try to understand and account for diversity more than ever before. Australia’s New Aged is a must-read for policymakers, students, and anyone who works with the aged. Mary Johnson is a distinguished professor of public health and a senior dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Melbourne. She is also the author of numerous books and articles on aging and health.

Product Details

• Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (March 31, 2021)
• Language: English
• Digital Pages: 158
• ISBN-10: 0367717484
• ISBN-13: 978-0367717483