Another contribution of the aged in the society is their involvement in volunteer and formal organizations. Studying volunteer work can be problematic its definition is vague, although, many studies have indicated that a number of elderly have been involved in them. According to Fischer et al. (1991, in Atchley, 1997) if helping family members is volunteer work, then “nearly 60 percent” of the Minnesota elderly respondents were engaged in it. Nut if lending help to the neighbors (usually in the form of transportation or visiting”) can be regarded as volunteer work then “40 percent of older Minnesotans provided this type of help.
” If it is an activity prepared by an organization, in that case 52 percent of the Minnesota elderly have volunteered. Many organizations are formed to involve the elderly in various volunteer work either paid or not. The RSVP or Retired Senior Volunteer Program, gives the elderly (60 and above) a chance to participate in a meeting the needs of the community. “RSVP agencies place volunteers in schools, hospitals, libraries, courts, day-care centers, nursing homes, and a host of other organizations. RSVP programs provide transportation to and from the place of service.
” The Service Corps of retired Executives is similar to RSVP in terms of purpose. The former “offers retired businesses and mangers of community organizations who are having management problems (Atchley, 1997:285). ” In addition, in the “four nation study” conducted by WHO regarding the organizational membership of the elderly, only about three percent indicated that they were members of the “social organization” (Andrews, et al. , 1986 in Costello, 1994). Health and economic related problems were found in the Goldberg’s study conducted in 1992 regarding the needs of elderly foreigners living in Germany.
The population consisted of 158 respondents and the results showed that generally, the aged experienced “debilitating health and economic problems in combination with depression and social isolation… while some respondents expressed general satisfaction with having migrated, many felt the process had negatively influenced both their livelihood and comfort (Goldberg in NISC Discover Sociological Abstracts 1985-July 2003). Most studies about the needs of the elderly involve participation of different institutions in addressing them. Non-government and government organizations are part of it.
Social work is one of the services provided by these organizations and social workers materialize its goal. Although there seems to be many services to help the elderly, the problem lies in implementation. Though the elderly are on their final chapter of their lives, they still have significant contribution to the society and there are matters that concern them personally. As described earlier, three aspects of elderly lives had been explored- the elderly involvement in the family, their contribution to the economy as well as their involvement to the community.
Predominantly, because of the age, health problems concerned them most. The common health related problems experienced by the elderly are rheumatism and high blood pressure. Disengagement theory offers a different perspective in analyzing the concerns of the elderly. It explains adaptation to aging in terms of involvement of elderly in activities. This theory redefines “engagement” which means that the elderly has been involved in a new activity “disengagement” or the complete withdrawal from a particular activity or “continuation” or any activity that the elderly still does to the present.
In focusing on the activities of the elderly, Differential Engagement theory would be better because it is best suited to it. On the other hand, Continuity theory considers the personality of the aged and how he/she adopts in the aging process.
List of References
Atchley, R. (1997) Social Forces and Aging: An Introduction to Social Gerontology. California: Wardsworth Publishing Company Goldberg A. (1996) “The Status and Specific Problems of Elderly Foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany. ” Journal of Comparative Family Studies (spring): 129-146 in NISC Sociological Abstracts 1985-July 2003
Hooyman, N. and Kiyak A. (1993) Social Gerontology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Boston: Ally and Bacon Landis, J. (1986) Sociology: Concepts and Characteristics (6th ed. ). California: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Montes, S. (1982) The Elderly: Beholden Sector of Society in Social Research Center (ed. ). The Elderly of Asia. Manila: Social Research Center, pp. 369-375. Theil, S. (2003) “A Heavy Burden”. Newsweek. June 30-July7, 22-24 Ward R. (1984) The Aging Experience: An Introduction to Social Gerontology. New York: Harper and Row Publishers