"The third age"

The average life expectancy in Moscow has increased from 74 years to 77 years in three years. This is due to the overall improvement in the quality of life, medical care and the economic situation. How is the attitude towards old age changing in society against this background? Where did the concept of "third age" come from and what can elderly people do in a megalopolis? Read about it in the article m24.ru .In recent years, the attitude towards old age in Russia, and especially in Moscow, has begun to change dramatically.

This time ceases to be perceived in a frightening and negative way as a time of illness, infirmity and loneliness. Increasingly, the Western concept of the "third age" has begun to be applied to old age, which means that a person does not drop out of society after retirement, but simply goes to the next stage – begins to lead an active lifestyle, use the free time from work for himself, revealing his potential and capabilities. 

A few years ago, the idea of eternal youth appeared in our country, Rogozin notes. The first to promote this view of aging in the public space was the journalist Vladimir Yakovlev, who launched the project "The Age of Happiness". He published stories of elderly people living actively and vividly.

In three years, Yakovlev traveled to 10 countries, met with more than a hundred people aged 60 to 104 years. He needed these acquaintances to understand if there was something in common in their lifestyle. It turned out that happy elderly people have something in common: they eat little, move a lot, live for their own pleasure and enjoy every day. Each of them at a certain point in their lives consciously made a choice in favor of not getting old the way society offered them – to get sick, mope, sadly remember the past youth and teach the younger generation. 

"In this paradigm, old age is denied as a phenomenon," says sociologist Dmitry Rogozin. – A good old man is someone who is young not only in soul, but also in body. This is the so-called Hollywood type of old age with a wide smile full of teeth and a light tan. But in our culture, this view of old age is not entirely natural."

"Old age begins to be perceived as a time of comprehension of one's life, summing up its results. Many begin to think more deeply about the impending death and come to a religious view of the world. Previously, they preferred to keep silent about this aspect of old age," the expert explains. 

Also, people are beginning to abandon the stereotypical behavior of an elderly person. "In the understanding of our society, the opinion has firmly strengthened that with retirement, a person should start going to the country, going to the polyclinic and helping to raise grandchildren," the expert says. In his opinion, there is nothing wrong with this stereotype, but this is not the only option for the development of life in old age. 

"Now there are more and more elderly people who, after retirement, continue to search for themselves, start a new life, despite their venerable age and high professional achievements. For example, I know a very famous professor who decided to enroll in a new bachelor's degree in retirement. Someone starts doing sports, social activities, photography, travel," says the sociologist.

For example, in Moscow in recent years, public spaces have been created that are accessible to people with limited motor abilities, including the elderly.

"The city is becoming more accessible to older people," says the cultural scientist. – Their number is increasing in cultural spaces. Public transport is becoming more convenient and adapted for people with disabilities. Due to mobile communications and Internet technologies, older people have more opportunities to communicate with their families and with each other."

Kurennoy noted that in the entire history of our society, people have never lived so long, so for the first time society is faced with a situation where it is necessary to provide a normal old age for such a large number of people. This makes it necessary to create a new segment of age-related medicine, which will be aimed at working specifically with the elderly. 

Now in the capital, the number of citizens who are unable to work due to age is 2.8 million people (26 percent of the total number of citizens), and by 2020 it is projected to increase to 3.3 million people (29 percent of the population). The reasons for the growth are the overall improvement in the quality of life, economic growth and progress in medicine. 

In 2014, the average life expectancy in Moscow was 76.6 years. This is three years more than in Russia. In the capital, the question that a special medical service should be created for the elderly was first raised by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin in 2012. In 2014, the pilot project launched the program "Organization of work of the Moscow geriatric service "Care" to help people aged.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru

30.11.2015