Using New Attitudes and Technology to Change the Developmental Counseling Focus for Older Populations

Counseling and Human Development, Apr 2003 by Thomas, M Carolyn, Martin, Virginia, Alexander, Jeri Jo, Cooley, Fannie R, Loague, Averil M

The dual challenges of a growing elderly population and the rapid advances in technology call for counselors to discard or drastically change traditional attitudes and counseling techniques with older people and produce more appropriate approaches for the new millennium. In the 2002 census, 35.6 million people were 65 years or older, comprising 12.3% of the U.S. population. One in every eight Americans is considered elderly. By 2030, the older population is projected to be 70 million, or 20% of the populace. This rapid growth means there will be twice as many Americans 65 years or older in 2030 than in 2000 (Administration on Aging, 2003).

Although late adulthood, or old age, has been generally considered to begin at age 65, life expectancies now are extending into the 80s and 90s (Papalia, Olds & Feldman, 2004). Consequently, late adulthood encompasses several decades, and the developmental issues and tasks of later life are ongoing and quite variable. As more and more people live longer and healthier lives, counselors in the 21st century can help older clients by focusing on opportunity and empowerment rather than problems and decline.

Counselors, older people, and culture can undergo three major changes to help ensure that older people experience this developmental stage as a period of growth and actualization.

1. The traditional and often negative view of aging must be translated into a more positive approach represented by an empowering philosophy.

2. Developmental tasks at different substages can be identified earlier, so planning and preparation for these tasks can be the preferred approach, as opposed to assessment of limitations and resultant remediation.

3. Technology can become an enabling tool for older people to reduce and eliminate isolation, disconnectedness, and dependency associated with dated beliefs and practices.

To be sure, as people age, they face numerous life challenges resulting from mounting social and physical changes. If the challenge for aging people, counselors, and society is to transcend developmental changes often seen as obstacles, the task of changing attitudes and adopting more empowering approaches that include technology can transform these challenges to opportunities for growth and healthy development. The test for society is to create an environment in which aging people can enjoy and continue their healthy developmental progression toward reaching their maximum potential.

THE NEED TO CHANGE ATTITUDES AND APPROACHES

Mental health professionals and society in general have historically taken an essentially negative view of the elderly (Durodoye & Ennis-Cole, 1998; Schweibert, 1994). The term ageism was coined, reflecting this unfavorable attitude toward aging and older people (Papalia et al., 2004). Ponzo (1992) referred to the negative stereotyping as age prejudice. Older people often are viewed as frail, incompetent, inflexible, wedded to the past, sick, slow, helpless, dependent, depressed, lonely, physically limited, and boring (Durodoye & Ennis-Cole, 1998; Myers & Schwiebert, 1996; Ponzo, 1992).

These distorted social messages negatively affect the manner in which older people anticipate this developmental stage. They often fear the supposed boredom, poor health, loss of dignity and self-esteem, loneliness, lack of money, disenfranchisement, and loss that are supposed to be inevitable. They associate their aging with negative psychological, physical, economic, and social changes rather than opportunities for positive growth. The older years also are often seen with finality as a single period of disengagement and a sliding or abrupt decline leading simply to death (Glover, 1998). More constructive attitudes would focus on the aging period as a series of opportunities for achievement, triumph, and positive balance.

Another change in focus might be a reconsideration of Erikson's final life stage. Erikson (1963) described old age as a period for achieving the task of ego integrity versus despair by evaluating one's past life and judging it to have been productive, meaningful, and worthwhile. One might well interpret the task differently by seeing the achievement of ego integrity as a process rather than a product, or result. The traditional interpretation implies the need to look back. In a preferred conceptual framework, the older person would review his or her life and also become actively involved in creating a balance in the present. Achieving ego integrity would not be a period of merely looking back but, instead, would be an ongoing, developmental process of existential living requiring living in the present with the intention of growing in the future.

The need to modify attitudes about aging with resulting changes in approaches is certainly recommended in the counseling literature. Among the strongest proponents of an empowerment approach to working with older persons are Waters and Goodman (1990). They described empowerment as the ability to develop positive, satisfying lifestyles and to maximize developmental potential and life satisfaction. Schweibert (1994) further described empowerment approaches as strategies to achieve a sense of control over one's life and to use this control to positively affect the aging experience.