During the Coronavirus crisis people aged 70 plus have been seen vulnerable as a whole and isolated with very little voice. There is a risk that in the aftermath of the lockdown, and with concerns about additional occurrences of the virus, older people will continue to be marginalised and excluded and seen as vulnerable but not valuable.
How do we as a community work out how we can benefit from the wisdom of older people and give this group of people opportunity to play active and valuable roles in recovery?
A recent ABC Religion and Ethics report posed the question of how the older generation may need to work out ways of how they can help the young who, as the writer claims, have been disproportionately affected financially by the pandemic.
“Young people, often in temporary and marginal occupations, tended to be disproportionately vulnerable to this sudden economic standstill. They will also likely disproportionately suffer its consequences for years to come. Nevertheless, they stepped up. They took responsibility for a generation at risk. Now isn’t it time for that generation to return the favour, to take responsibility for the young? Doesn’t this mean re-examining the concept of “retirement”? To treat retirement as retirement from the economy — as a time merely to enjoy whatever wealth one may have accumulated in the course of a working life — is surely to abrogate this responsibility.
Freed from the demands of raising a family and pursuing a career, seniors have the opportunity to re-invest themselves in purposes that exceed the merely personal.”
Here is the link to the full article.
What ways can older Australians step up to assist the younger generation?