There came a time when researchers realized the population of the United States was aging. People were having fewer children, while they were living longer.
In 1968, the Baby Boom had just ended and Arizona was becoming a destination for retirees.
Those involved in the study of aging and the aged were gaining a new sense of purpose.
A four-part series in the Arizona Daily Star in May of 1968 brought this up.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Sunday May 5, 1968:
Arizona And The Aging β I
Problems of 'Old Folks' Increasing
By TOM TURNER
First Of A Series
The problems of the aging are slowly taking a prominent place in the research laboratories of the nation's colleges.
Dr. Elinor Barnes is chairman of a University of Arizona faculty committee on gerontology (the study of aging).
"For so long our attentions have been turned toward the young," Dr. Barnes says. "There is so much we don't know about the problems of aging. The field is wide open."
The UA committee draws together teachers in economics, business, medicine, natural sciences, psychology, home economics and sociology in hopes of developing advanced gerontological study programs within existing curriculums.
Greater numbers of Americans reach retirement age each year. They are living longer. They are more financially independent. They are more mobile. But attitudes toward retirement and the retiree are virtually unchanged, committee study has revealed.
A 1965 special Tucson census revealed a total of 40,349 persons who were over the age of 55. Approximately 20,713 of these persons were of retirement age (over 60 or 65). That represented a 24.3 per cent increase since 1960 β the largest increase of any state in the nation.
There will not be any more current statistics until the next official census in 1970, but there is no reason to suppose that the number of retirement age persons in Tucson has not increased since 1965.
In fact, demographers are predicting that the increase for Arizona from 1960 to 1985 will be 152.4 per cent while the national increase will only be 56 per cent.
The committee has concluded that there is a pressing demand on the professions that must be recognized and dealt with β and soon. They feel there must be more information on retirement disseminated among those who are nearing that age. They believe that new avenues must be opened to allow the retired to use their work life talents for the betterment of their communities β to be useful.
Dr. Courtney B. Cleland, associate professor of sociology, last year directed a survey of 100 retired persons living in Tucson. Currently, he is conducting a survey of 75 Green Valley residents. Green Valley is a retirement community about 25 miles south of Tucson.
The surveys are under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin. Similar surveys are underway in the retirement communities of Florida.
Cleland and his assistants are seeking to find out how retirement residents feel about their communities; whether they are as content as they'd like to be β or as busy. He wants to determine where they came from and why; how much preparation they made for their retirement; what their incomes are and were. The questionnaire is 22 pages long.
"There have been magazine articles on retirement communities," Cleland maintains, "but never a systematic, meaningful study." There will be no conclusions from the Green Valley survey until the end of this year.
But Cleland has drawn some observations from his study of Tucsonans last summer. Most of them came to Arizona from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas.
A surprising number, says Cleland, came here because their doctors told them to. Generally, he discovered, they are not lacking financially. Most have enough to live comfortably. Many could be considered affluent. Many are here because their children were here before them. The children of others will follow their parents here eventually.
They are not necessarily ill but choose to withdraw from society into more informal roles as a means of tapering off from work, Cleland concluded. Many would like to do some kind of work β either salaried or unsalaried, but such positions are hard to come by here.
Recreation alone, Cleland found, is not necessarily satisfying. It does not make them fell "useful enough." On the other hand, it is a mistake to presume that all these (retired) people are throbbing with the desire to do something. "Many," Cleland says, "don't want to do anything."
Those who retire to Arizona are generally more modern in thought; more permissive as to social standards. Those with lower retirement incomes tend to be more suspicious of those around them; more convinced that "everyone is out to get my money."
Cleland discovered that the Tucson retirees he talked to generally have no desire to live in retirement communities "with a bunch of old people." Some feel, Cleland found, that retirement community living would be beyond their financial means.
"But an amazing number of these people," Cleland says, "have never looked into the costs of the retirement community; have never even visited one."
It is safe to say that more people think about these things these days. The population has indeed aged since 1968.
From the Star, Monday, May 6, 1968:
Arizona And The Aging β II
Elders' Talents Could Aid City
Dr. Barnes Of UA Study Committee Favors 'Retirement Home' Concept For Seniors
By TOM TURNER
Second of a Series
Tucson has not begun to tap one of its most valuable resources β the talents of its steady influx of retirees, University of Arizona researchers believe.
The state is still burdened by the popular notion that Arizona is the place to come to die, the scientists say; or, the state is just so many old people.
On July 1, 1965, only 7.5 per cent of Arizona's population was over age 65. Despite a growing in-migration of retirees into Arizona, the percentage stays about the same because of the simultaneous large-in-migrations of those below 30.
Dr. Elinor Barnes, business and economics expert, is chairman of a graduate study committee on aging at the UA. Associate Professor of Sociology Courtney Cleland is a member of that committee.
Both agree that a way to utilize the talents of the retired β either on a part-time-salaried or volunteer basis β would greatly aid both the Tucson community and the retiree looking for a way to be "useful." Recreation alone is not necessarily enough. But there must be a way also to interest the retired resident in offering his talents.
"These people are relatively affluent," Cleland maintains. "Many have specific talents that made them successful in their working life that are now going unused. Yet, Arizona and Tucson do little to welcome new retirees or to help them adjust."
Dr. Barnes is a great believer in the "retirement home" concept of living. There are no retirement homes in Tucson. There are three in Phoenix β all church-sponsored.
A retirement home can be distinguished from both the nursing home (Tucson has 22 of those) and the retirement community (such as nearby Green Valley).
Nursing homes are for the ailing. They do not cater exclusively to older people, although most nursing home patients are older.
In retirement communities, residents buy or rent their own homes, do all their own yard work, their own cooking, worry about their own utility and medical bills.
Retirement homes, however, are for the healthy, Dr. Barnes explains. Residents buy or rent their own apartments and pay an additional amount for "lifetime care." For a monthly fee, someone else does their cooking, their laundry and sees to their medical well-being. Although most retirement homes are church-sponsored, there is no obligation to be affiliated with any church. Recreation is available, but not mandatory.
How about the morale of those who live in retirement homes?
"I used to think that retirement home residents would be morose and inactive," Dr. Barnes says. "In my visits, I've found just the opposite. Why, most of those people are more active than a lot of middle-agers I know. They travel, they dance, they participate in civic affairs and in the management of their own homes in some cases."
On the other hand, Dr. Barnes points out, a recent survey of retirees living in trailer homes around Tucson, revealed they spend "an inordinate amount of time watching television, crocheting and doing other non-active things."
Then there was the issue of health.
From the Star, Tuesday, May 7, 1968:
Arizona and the Aging - III
Older Population Creates Greater Demands On Medicine
By MARILYN DRAGO
Third of a Series
The aging person is "the sum of his days," a living diary of all he has experienced β and what is written in that diary will influence his health and well-being in old age.
Starting with this, the University of Arizona's Graduate Committee on Gerontology has begun research onto the causes of aging, both natural and premature, as well as the social, psychological, medical, economic and biological problems of the aged.
The year-old committee has established one premise: The changes occurring with advancing age are, for the most part, natural changes β as natural as the appearance of a wisdom tooth in the late teens.
"These changes are neither good or bad," says Dr. Newell Younggren of the UA biological sciences department. "They are just differences and should be regarded as one more aspect of growth itself. The fear of these changes intensifies the problems of the elderly."
Society and old people themselves regard old age as "the end of the road," the point at which they become useless, the time when their intellects might fail β and these fears actually can precipitate the problems.
"Let's put it this way," Younggren said. "Older people should 'to themselves be true.' Aging is different for every individual. Acceptance of the changes aging brings gives the older person armor against the destructive processes intensified by fear."
Many of the diseases that plague the aged are preventable, (by sound health habits, dental care and good nutrition in earlier years) and treatable (with regular physical examinations and diagnosis of conditions that could lead to later illness). But many of the illnesses of old age strike, cripple and kill, in spite of precautions.
Our population is getting older β and the older the population and more demands on physicians, hospitals, nurses, families. As the body ages it seems subject to more diseases, more frequently especially heart and artery failure, mental and nervous disorders, cancer and diseases of the joints. Is the cell deteriorating? Are these diseases inevitable as the body ages β or does the aging body lack resistance?
These are the questions the committee seeks to answer. As answers are found, the members hope to develop advanced degree programs emphasizing fields of study. They expect to find as many new questions as they find answers.
The aged patient is a continuing challenge. Medical care aims at preserving the ability to function, to improve function when possible and to halt the onset of diseases that kill persons still working, still contributing to society and still cherishing life.
And, the ultimate goal: to prevent deterioration of the mind and body and to "suspend in time" at least some of the person's peak productive years.
"From a biological viewpoint," Younggren said, "as long as an individual can be productive he should be allowed to work, past the retirement age." (Economically, however, some specialists hold that such a policy would keep jobs from younger persons. Younggren counters: "If the old person isn't allowed to work he becomes a social and economic burden anyway.")
There have been victories in the medical care of the aged. Good food in the younger years postpones a weakened old age. Surgery in the elderly has proved that, other factors being equal, the old patient recovers, his bones knit, his body endures, almost as well as the patient many years younger.
Good health has a greater influence on an elderly person's idea of himself than the number of years he has lived. If his health is good his mental outlook is likely to remain clear. If his accumulated years are valued, he is content.
"There are not enough cooperative studies between medicine and the social sciences," Younggren said. "One of our aims is to look at the whole man, combining the knowledge of medicine and the other sciences."
Studies of the aged must touch on every aspect of living β housing, recreation, income, medical care, family ties, food habits β to provide a clear picture of what actually occurs in old age.
"Everything that happens to the aged can happen at an earlier age," Younggren said. "Young people have strokes, cancer, mental impairment, poor food. They have diseases that can mimic some of the changes of old age. Everything learned in these studies on aging will be applicable to all human life β all the way back to birth, and even before.
The final installment offered solutions.
From the Star, Wednesday, May 8, 1968:
Arizona And The Aging β IV
Delayed 3 Years, Arizona Program To Aid Aged Launched
By LESTER INSKEEP
Last of a Series
After a delay of three years, Arizona has launched a state aid to the aged program which will be funded largely through the federal Older Americans Act of 1965. It will be substantially expanded in the fiscal year starting next July 1.
The state itself has been hesitant to take on sole responsibility for any aid program which would put a heavy burden on its treasury. It does, however, participate in the many facets of public welfare which primarily is financed with federal funds and it does assume responsibility for medical services to the indigent.
State participation in hospital insurance for the so-called medical indigent through the federal Kerr-Mills act is so small as to be virtually non-existent.
Outside of federal Old Age Assistance and medical care for the indigent, the most active program designed for the aged is to be provided under the Older Americans Act, according to Robert W. James, state director of the Division for the Aging, which operated under the Dept. of Public Welfare.
He said the Legislature declined to appropriate the state funds necessary through to bring Arizona under the program until the last session, when $7,881 was appropriated for the remainder of the current fiscal year. This made $127,000 in federal money available for the program. Sen. Douglas Holsclaw, R-Pima, was main sponsor of the Arizona legislation.
An additional $23,000 was appropriated for the 1968-69 fiscal year and this is expected to bring a much larger federal allocation for that fiscal year.
A series of regional hearings leading to allocation of various grants will be held May 22 in Phoenix, and May 23 in Flagstaff.
A training program for special personnel to carry out the intentions of the Older American Act is already under way.
James explained that there will be senior citizen centers at which a variety of social services and other activities will be provided.
Plans are being made to provide part-time homemakers, handyman services, home health aids, and such other services as will permit the elderly to live in their own homes instead of institutions.
"They must be kept active," he declared.
Much of this work will be carried out through grants made to private and public non-profit corporations but the entire project will be subject to review by a governor's committee yet to be appointed.
A substantial part of the local program will be administered by Robert Cowles, assistant executive director of the Tucson Community Council.
Also in its last session, the Legislature passed a bill authorizing a state increase in maximum welfare grants to the aged from $125 to $165.
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CHICAGO (Special) β Regardless of their age and even if they are in good health, old people approximately a year away from death show definite, detectable psychological changes.
This observation has been made by Dr. Morton A Lieberman, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Development at The University of Chicago.
In his research on the ways in which attitudes toward death can help in understanding the psychology of aging, Dr. Lieberman spent several years studying and testing 80 persons between the ages of 70 and 95. Forty of these persons have died since the study began. Of those who died, 34 showed a distinct through not necessarily conscious awareness of signs of death more than a year before it took place.
These psychological changes occurred in both intellectual and emotional sectors of functioning, Dr. Lieberman said.
"There was no evidence in these psychological changes that these people had any increased concern or fear, only that they were monitoring signs within themselves that become symbolized as death," said Dr. Lieberman. "It is also important to emphasize that these people were not obviously physically ill when they began to show these signs.
Among the 40 who died, fear was evident only among those in a state of environmental stress caused primarily by being about to move into homes for the aged. "These people seemed to have no personal-philosophical system to deal with death," said Dr. Lieberman. "It is possible that their crisis situation makes life impinge on them and they fear they will die before they come to terms with this new life crisis."
Dr. Lieberman thus feels that death should be viewed not as a specific point in time in which bodily functions stop, but as an ongoing process whose culmination is signaled about a year or more before bodily death takes place.
"The psychology of death may well begin in middle age," he added. "People may begin coping with the problem in their late 50s. By the time they are truly old, most of them have come to terms with the situation unless they are faced with a new crisis."
