"Namćori" iz komšiluka: predstavljanje starosti u domaćoj televizijskoj reklami

Author(s): Ljubica Milosavljević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 3/2010

This paper is the result of a three-month monitoring of Serbian television commercials which aimed to study the way elderly people are represented in the media. Elderly people appear in only six commercials, more often as a functional part of a series than as protagonists. Yet in spite of the small number of commercials in which they appear, it is easy to identify the stereotypes which are translated from a social paradigm into the sphere of the media. The stereotypes on which commercials are based belong for the most part to the corpus of negative stereotypes of elderly people as hopelessly behind the times, feeble, lonely, irritating, cantankerous, etc. Some positive stereotypes are also evident, but they are mostly limited to a perception of elderly people as kindly givers of useful advice. It is interesting to note that the "cantankerous people next door" are as a rule anonymous elderly people, as are those "lost in time and space", who are mostly elderly women. In contrast, those who let their careers and images be associated with a certain product, in order to pass on their great experience and knowledge, are as a rule famous persons. Just as it is possible to make a distinction between commercials depending on whether or not the products advertised are targeted at the elderly – which they rarely are – and whether elderly people appear in leading or supporting roles, in order to make viewers laugh or annoy them, so it is possible to distinguish between the "real-life principle", which involves the translation of the society’s dominant attitudes into commercials, and "commercial reality", which either makes old age invisible or "masks" it so that it is pleasant to the eye. The reason that old people are absent from television commercials or are mostly represented in a negative light is to be found in the low purchasing power of this age group, but also in the fact that advertising in Serbia developed practically overnight, and therefore has not always been able to follow foreign advertising trends, which treat the elderly as a worthy target audience for commercials.

"Nisu dali gospodaru 'z ruk...“. Starost u prigorskim i zagorskim selima između dva svjetska rata

Author(s): Suzana Leček / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 23/2000

The paper deals with the position of the elderly in the complex families of the Prigorje and Hrvatsko Zagorje regions in the time period between the World War I and the World War II. It aims at answering the questions until what age do people maintained the power within their families, how was this power expressed, and how their work and ownership over land influenced their maintenance of authority. The paper also warns about the differences between the widowers and widows, shown through the differences in the land ownership.

(Nie)wygodna starość. O demencji w programach telewizyjnych i filmach

Author(s): Hanna Grzesiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2 (16)/2020

The number of elderly people not only in Poland but also around the world is growing rapidly. Due to this fact, more and more attention is paid to the aging process and old age itself. Although the elderly are becoming more and more visible in the media, as evidenced by the increasing number of television programs with their participation, the issue of dementia is still a topic that is rarely discussed in public discourse and in movies.The aim of the article is to analyze television programs and movies that have been broadcast in recent years and to trace the contexts in which dementia is presented, which today is a significant problem not only for the patient's family but also for the entire society.

A Dacian soldier from Mauretania Caesariensis. The case of Decineus and his frater

Author(s): Casian Gămănuţ / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

An epitaph discovered at Sour Djouab, Algeria, was erected by Decineus, who names himself the brother of the deceased, for a certain veteran named Fulvius Felix. The death of the latter occurred, most probably, towards the end of the 2nd century AD. Despite the doubts about the biological tie between Decineus and his frater, the presence of a Dacian anthroponym at that time in an extremely militarized area of the Roman Empire is enough to raise curiosity regarding the career of this soldier. The author makes use of historical context and archaeological data in order to understand, at least in general lines, how the career of Decineus evolved. This paper aims to reconstruct, as much as possible, the life and military activity of Decineus, as well as to answer questions concerning his recruitment, belonging to an auxiliary unit and eventual life after his release from military service.

A gondoskodás újraszervezése

Gyakorlati válaszok a gondoskodási válságra

Author(s): Noémi Katona,Loren László,Andrea Czerván / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 27/2020

The starting point of our paper is that the capitalist socioeconomic system treats life-reproducing reproductive work and one of its forms, care as free resources, as individual responsibilities, placing their costs on families and households, especially women. The low level of state engagement and the emergence of for-profit market services further exacerbate the crisis of care as well as inequalities in care. In the paper, we first introduce grassroots cooperatives and initiatives in the field of elderly care and child care that revalue and reorganize care in a participatory, democratic and solidarity-based way in order to strengthen carers as well as those with care needs, and to improve the quality of their lives. These include workers’ (carers’) cooperatives, users’ cooperatives (cooperatives of people with care needs), multistakeholder cooperatives and mothers’ centers, the communities of women with small children. We then introduce political movements struggling for the systemic transformation of reproductive work and care. We argue that the institutions of care should be owned and controlled by communities, while the state should continue to play a coordinating, funding and regulatory role in meeting needs and recognizing care work.

A Multidisciplinary Perspective of the Existential Loneliness of Older People

Author(s): Akvilė Virbalienė,Aurelija Šiurienė,Remigijus Bubnys / Language(s): English Issue: 9/2021

Research by psychologists in the late 1990s has shown that older people have significant needs that cannot be met by psychotherapy, social work or other areas of help, as older people face meaning, dignity, religion, love necessity, morality, death and other existential issues (Erichsen, Buessing, 2013). Most often, professionals working with the elderly have noticed a problem of loneliness caused by self-alienation and selfrejection (Moustakas, 2008). These experiences clearly illustrate the phenomenon of existential loneliness in the lives of the elderly. If the problem of existential loneliness is not solved, it causes psychosocial problems that turn into existential anxiety and cause a sense of meaninglessness, which Yalom (1980) identifies as one of the four existential “gifts” next to death, freedom, and isolation. Studies focusing on the loneliness of older people in the European context are rare. However, the existential needs and existential loneliness of the elderly are discussed instead by Edberg & Bolmsjö (2019) and Sjöberg et al. (2019) . The aim of this study is to reveal a multidisciplinary perspective on the existential loneliness of elderly wives. A scientific analysis of the literature was performed. The method of this study was chosen to reveal the phenomenon of existential unity from a multidisciplinary perspective, revealing the holistic, existential nature of loneliness. Existential loneliness is associated with a social problem, the origins of which lie in diminished social skills and individual differences between the individuals. The loneliness of the elderly is closely linked to the value system of society and the spread of solidarity in society. From a sociological point of view, existential loneliness is treated as a multi-faceted construct related to the historical and cultural context of society and is therefore in a constant negative transformation within social groups. From the point of view of psychology, existential loneliness is related to the possibilities of a person’s development, deeper self-knowledge, discovery of creativity, on the other hand, existential loneliness has a negative connotation of sadness, helplessness, grief, meaninglessness, or suffering. In the philosophical-theological perspective of the perception of existential loneliness, two aspects emerge related to loneliness as an inevitable existential part of a person and isolation from oneself.

A review on internet use and quality of life of the elderly

Author(s): Hayat Boz,Sibel Esra Karatas / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

As the world population rapidly ages, improving the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly and enabling them to age actively is increasingly becoming a global policy concern. In this context, emphasis is also given to information and communication technologies (ICTs) that may play a significant part in enhancing the QOL of the elderly. This review study explores the impact of Internet use on QOL of the elderly by examining available researches in this field. By searching on ADM Digital Library, WEB Science, ERIC, PsycINFO and PubMed databases, this study reviewed 25 studies published after 1990 that investigate the relationship between Internet use and QOL of elderly. The synthesis of the research findings indicates that the functional use of computer and Internet improves QOL for older people. The findings also provide a comprehensive perspective on the current state of knowledge and raises questions for further research

A Senior as an Individual in the Situation of Dementia. Tom Kitwood’s Person-Centred Care Model and the Philosophy of Dialogue

Author(s): Agnieszka Smrokowska-Reichmann / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Seniors suffering from dementia are always exposed to a reductive approach and depersonalization due to the specificity of that disease. The subjectivity of a senior is neglected or even completely negated. What remains unnoticed is the fact that, despite their disease, a senior is still a person – with the rights and needs of a person – and not just a helpless patient. The paper presents a break that has been made in the understanding and care of seniors with dementia thanks to the work of Tom Kitwood, a British psychologist. In Kitwood’s Person-Centred Care model, a person is defined as a relational, feeling, and historical being. At the same time, being a person is only possible in the interpersonal context. Hence the author's suggestion to read Kitwood’s concept from the angle of the philosophy of dialogue, which is always an affirmation of subjectivity and an opposition to tendencies that reify human beings. In the author’s opinion, Kitwood translated the main postulates of the philosophy of dialogue into the language of psychology, gerontology and senior care by operationalizing the indicators of the well-being of a patient with dementia.

A similar effect of volunteering and pensions on subjective wellbeing of elderly

Author(s): Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn,Leszek Morawski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

We study the effect of pensions and volunteering on subjective wellbeing (SWB) of elderly using the latest wave 6 of Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). This is the first study to consider pensions and volunteering simultaneously as determinants of SWB among elderly. We find that the effect of volunteering on SWB is not much smaller or indeed about as large as that of pensions. The most SWB is associated with volunteering about every week, but there is already a substantial effect even if one volunteers only about every month. We also find that the higher the income or wealth, but not pension, the lower the effect of volunteering – there may be higher opportunity cost for richer people to engage in volunteering. High European pensions may be unsustainable in the long run – we argue that promotion of volunteering is one way to increase elderly’s subjective wellbeing amidst tightening budgets.

Abordări privind îngrijirea de lungă durată a persoanelor vârstnice, în ţările Uniunii Europene

Author(s): Mihaela Ghența,Aniela Matei,Luise Mladen-Macovei / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2020

This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of public policies for dependent elderly people in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary and Portugal. The countries were selected taking into account the expertise in this field and the specifics of the socio-cultural context, so as to highlight the different solutions applied in those countries to solve certain problems related to the care of the elderly. The analysis of policies for dependents takes into account, for each country, the following: coordination of social and long-term care services; the beneficiaries and the minimum level of dependency for which it is granted, the procedure and criteria for assessing the dependency; the benefits provided (in kind and in cash); types of long-term care services providers. The analysis of this paper is based on information available in the database of the European Union - Mutual Information System on Social Protection which contains detailed and updated data on social protection systems in European countries, supplemented with information from studies, research reports conducted in within some projects financed within the Framework Program 7 of the European Commission, such as ANCIEN, MOPACT, but also public data available on the websites of the public ministries responsible with the provision of social services, as well of long-term care services for the elderly. The paper is structered as follows: the first part presents the characteristics of the policies for dependent elderly people from the selected countries, followed in the second part by a comparative analysis of the main aspects identified.

Academician Ana Vasilichia Aslan, inventatoarea produsului Gerovital H3 – Realizare de excepţie în știinţa românească

Author(s): Daniela-Amby Ostafe,Laura-Alexandra Ostafe,Laurentiu-Norocel Ostafe / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 15/2022

The paper explores the so called Gerovital H3 phenomenon and it briefly presents Romania’s research in the field of gerontology and geriatric medicine. The paper highlights the effects of Gerovital H3 on the human body and it also talks about the Romanian top researchers in the field. Academy member Ana Aslan believed that the number of people in the over 60 age group would increase, a fact that proved to be true in the 2011 census, when that particular age group accounted for 22.32% of Romania’s total population. Based on this belief, Gerovital H3 was first tested in 1951–1958 and officially approved by Romania’s Ministry of Chemistry and Ministry of Health in 1952. The product has been homologated in over 30 countries.

Accessibility of TV programs to persons with disabilities

Author(s): Tatjana T. Ćitić / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 3/2021

The most modern media systems in television program production and placement have the obligation of ensuring program accessibility to persons with disabilities. While in some countries this obligation is defined through a certain minimum of adapted content, in Serbia there is a set of media laws only indicating the necessity of care for persons with difficulty in following the television program. The basic thesis of this paper is how program accessibility, and thus increased social inclusion through media content, may be improved through the development and greater presence of the existing services (subtitle, sign language, audio-description), as well as through the introduction of new services, based on the capacities offered by digital technology and application of artificial intelligence in content production and placement. The statistics shows that at least one in eighteen persons in Serbia has difficulty in following TV program due to vision or hearing impairment and therefore, in the absence of the tools ensuring accessibility, these persons are unable to get information, education and entertainment from the television program.

Active Ageing Index as a Tool for Country Assessment and Comparison: The Case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Author(s): Marcela Petrová Kafková / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The Active Ageing Index was developed as a tool to monitor the potential for active and healthy ageing among European countries and to identify strengths and weaknesses in the country. It is used for policy setting in the ageing agenda. However broadly used, some methodological issues remain, and caution is necessary with its interpretation. Comparison of two countries is used for discussion of these issues. The Czech Republic and Slovakia shared a long history, joined in one state as Czechoslovakia. The current generations of older adults have spent most of their lives in that shared country. Yet, the now separate countries differ substantially in their positions in the Active Ageing Index, with Slovakia ranking much lower than the Czech Republic. In this article, the causes of the differences between the two countries are researched using a thorough comparison of survey indicator rankings, and explained with statistical data and the European Values Study survey 2017. Particular attention is paid to the indicators with the lowest and highest rankings. The results show surprisingly minor differences in most indicators. The most significant difference lay in older adults' employment and health situation, with Slovakia ranking lower. Together, these indicators are very powerful in the overall ranking of the Active Ageing Index.

Active Labour Market Measures for Vulnerable Categories of Population: Domain of Specialisation for Social Workers

Author(s): Theofild-Andrei Lazăr / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

Contemporary labour markets are still unequal and discriminatory regarding gender (Fontanella et al., 2020), ethnicity (Schmaus, 2020) and age (Button, 2020). Aiming to reduce these disparities countries developed Active Labour Market Polices (ALMP) that research proves that are more effective supporting vulnerable categories of population. Even if the national expense on ALMP’s in Romania is very low compared to other European countries, the investments from the European Social Fund, both in the previous funding exercise (2007-2013), but also in the present one (2014-2020), favoured the development of projects that aimed the integration into the labour market of vulnerable categories of citizens, making a good opportunity for specialization of social workers in this domain. The present work will analyse, as a case study, the results obtained in such a project, investigating the tendencies vulnerable categories of population have as beneficiaries of active labour market measures, in the context of similar support and economic environment. The purpose is to identify the effectiveness of vocational counselling, trainings and job-search assistance services on three categories of beneficiaries considered vulnerable on the labour market: women, Roma persons and elderly unemployed.

ADAM A. ZYCH, LEKSYKON GERONTOLOGII

Author(s): Dominika Jagielska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2019

Review of: Dominika Jagielska - ADAM A. ZYCH, LEKSYKON GERONTOLOGII, KRAKÓW: OFICYNA WYDAWNICZA „IMPULS”, 2019, SS. 282, ISBN

Adjustment and early retirement intentions of the older workers in the Croatian public sector

Author(s): Ana Štambuk,Ivan Uroda,Nikolina Anđelić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Croatian population and, consequently, Croatian labour force is rapidly ageing. With ageing comes the change in abilities e.g. decreasing productivity and declining cognitive ability. In the modern world, new applications of technologies transform requirements of jobs, thus workers have to adjust to those novelties. The problem is that older workers are ‘digital immigrants’ who started using a Personal Computer (PC) later in their lives, often during employment, so they had to change their approach to work i.e., they had to adjust to different requirements of today’s jobs. Required adjustments accompanied by decreasing abilities may lead to early retirement. The authors have investigated the influence of 1) the need to adjust to the requirements of today’s jobs (approximated by requirements to use a PC) and 2) the ability to adjust to the requirements of today’s jobs (approximated by ratings of PC skills) on early retirement intentions of population aged 50+ employed in the Croatian public sector. A logistic regression model in the context of complex samples was created by the authors, whereby both analysed variables were found to be related to the early retirement intentions. Finally, those who were required to use a PC and thus to adjust to changes were more likely to want to retire early than employees who did not have the same obligation. Those with low PC skills, i.e. employees whose ability to adjust was low, were also more likely to retire early than those who have adjusted better.

Adoption and Exploitation of Online Banking Services by the Elderly

Author(s): Aleksandar Erceg,Jovanka Damoska Sekuloska,Ivana Čandrlić Dankoš / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Online banking is considered one of the main contributions of the Internet to global society. Adoption of online banking services could be recognized as one of the metrics for digital inclusion of the population, especially for the elderly. Notably, the value of online banking services is considered significant and worthwhile during the pandemic period. Online banking is becoming increasingly crucial for the elders to meet their demands for high-quality, low-cost, and secure services. This study investigates online banking services among the elderly in Macedonia and Croatia, and compares the results with EU members. Through the survey analysis and available secondary data, the objectives are to identify differences in online banking services among the elderly and recognize the issues that influence the embracement of the digitalization of the banking services in the examined countries. The results have detected the gap existing in the adoption of online banking services and revealed the emerging, growing trend in the exploitation in all the examined countries.

Age and Technology in Digital Inclusion Policy: A Study of Italy and the UK

Author(s): Simone Carlo,Maria Sourbati / Language(s): English Issue: 26 (2)/2020

The role of media and communication technologies in increasing the quality of life of the elderly is today a key topic in academic and policy debates. This article discusses findings from a study into the way public policy frames the role of technologies in later life. The aim of our study was to critically investigate the policy discourses on ‘old age’ and on the role of digital ICT in fixing challenges associated with ageing. Our focus was on digital inclusion policies of the UK and Italy, two countries experiencing similar trends in population ageing but different ICT diffusion patterns. We found that an age-based understanding of digital technology use was quite common, as was an enthusiastic embracing of the role of digital ICT in the implementation of Active Ageing and Information Society goals. We also found that the understanding of the role of digital technology and its relationship to (old) age has been changing over the last decade, starting to reflect social complexity as ICT diffusion increases among older age groups.

AGE AND USAGE OF TECHNOLOGY. A STRCUTURAL EQUATION MODEL BASED ON THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Author(s): Simona-Nicoleta Vulpe,Corina Ilinca / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Despite of its great disruption, users’ access to technology is limited and influenced by individual attitudes and capabilities. We take a look at how social media usage, as a form of online social capital, varies based on the theory of planned behavior. Analyzing 2018 data from the United States of America, gathered within the Core Trends Survey – Pew Research Center, we develop a structural equation model comparison between younger and older respondents. Our results show that a more positive attitude towards the Internet increases the difficulty to give up digital devices, which also determines a higher level of social media usage for both younger and older individuals. However, older people tend to have a less positive attitude towards the Internet compared with their younger counterparts, which relates to their lower engagement in social media usage. We also identify intersections between age and variables such as education, income, and gender accounting for individuals’ digital behavior. Provided that online social capital may have an important role for well-being and medical prevention, our research highlights the need to further investigate this current digital divide.