Teaching the Psychiatry of Old Age: A German Point of View

Author(s):  
S. Kanowski
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
Ana Maya Goto Uyehara

At the end of XX century, the old age theme has been approached due to concern of the society with the quality of man’s life in the aging process and the fact of seniors correspond to a growing representative portion of the population in the quantitative point of view. So the aging changes in a problem that wins expressiveness and legitimacy in the field of the daily current concerns. This article intends to demonstrate that the work can articulate other life projects for the seniors and to avoid psychic pathologies in the old age that can appear due to the loss of personal identity, to the involvement lack in motivated activities or starting from the adoption of inadequate consumption ways or lifestyles. For this, this article assumes a line of preventive character explanation under two slopes: the first refers to the fact that, if the work ennobles the man, he must acquire or improve this individual competences, adapting them to the new demands of the job market to get a job, or even to reactivate his professional life because new life projects. The second slope follows the direction of the discovery of the seniors’ potentialities for the companies, which can adapt the qualities [and limitations] of this workers category to the various functions in the organization. The Brazilian entrepreneur needs to be attentive to the image of his company and the differential competitive that can distinguish it of the other companies. And this can be to employee senior people or to maintenance it in the company personnel staff.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1753-1758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Matthias Kliegel

ABSTRACTBackground:From a conceptual point of view, close friends are an important resource for promoting activity engagement in old age. Leisure activity engagement in turn is a key predictor of cognitive performance. Empirically, it remains unclear so far whether leisure activity engagement mediates between having close friends on the one hand and cognitive performance on the other, which we investigated in a large sample of older adults.Methods:We assessed cognitive performance (Mill Hill vocabulary scale and Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B) in 2,812 older adults. Participants reported information on leisure activity engagement and close friends.Results:A larger number of leisure activities and a larger number of close friends were significantly related to better cognitive performance in the Mill Hill vocabulary scale and TMT parts A and B. A larger number of close friends were significantly related to a larger number of leisure activities. The number of leisure activities mediated more than half of the relation of the number of close friends to performance in all three cognitive measures.Conclusions:Having close friends may be helpful to stimulate and promote activity participation in old age. By enhancing individuals’ cognitive reserve, this may finally preserve their cognitive performance level in old age.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-450
Author(s):  
Ch. Baimukhamedov

All current challenges and concerns associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the elderly are analyzed from the point of view of a practicing rheumatologist, including issues of terminology and diagnostics, the need to develop classification criteria for RA presenting at old age. This paper also discusses RA management in the elderly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A multicenter international study, initiated by the League of Eurasian Rheumatologists, can provide necessary insight to develop unified recommendations for RAP. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Pfaller ◽  
Mark Schweda

Contesting previous deficit-oriented models of ageing by focusing on the resources and potential of older people, concepts of ‘successful’, ‘productive’, and ‘active ageing’ permeate social policy discourses and agendas in ageing societies. They not only represent descriptive categories capturing the changing realities of later phases of life, but also involve positive visions and prescriptive claims regarding old age. However, the evaluative and normative content of these visions and claims is hardly ever explicitly acknowledged, let alone theoretically discussed and justified. Therefore, such conceptions of ‘ageing well’ have been criticised for promoting biased policies that privilege or simply impose particular practices and lifestyles. This appears problematic as it can obstruct or even effectively foreclose equal chances of leading a good life at old age. Against this backdrop, our contribution aims to discuss current conceptions of active ageing from an ethical point of view. Starting from an analysis of policy discourses and their critique, we first examine the moral implications of prominent conceptions of active ageing, focusing on evaluative and normative premises. By employing philosophical approaches, we analyse these premises in light of a eudemonistic ethics of good life at old age and detect fixations, shortcomings, and blind spots. Finally, we discuss consequences for ethically informed active ageing research and policies, highlighting the interrelations between one-sided ideals of ageing well and social discrimination and exclusion.


1972 ◽  
Vol 121 (561) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Alexander

To demonstrate how 'senile dementia emerged as an important psychiatric concept is not an easy task. Although the history of general psychiatry can be satisfactorily traced to the spirited endeavours of Hippocrates (460–375 B.C.), Celsus (circa 30 a.d.), Soranus the elder (circa 100 a.d.), and Aretaeus (circa 150 a.d.), the psychiatry of old age unfortunately lacks such a clear and well-defined genealogy. The term 'senile dementia’ itself seems to have been first used by Aretaeus, the physician of Cappadocia, but exactly how it had evolved and how it was differentiated, if at all, from normal senescence is not at all clear. Certainly modern psychiatry has inherited a wealth of graphic description of old age in general, and for a detailed account of the relevant ethnographic literature the reader is referred to the excellent article by Rosen (1961). From a scientific point of view, however, it is unfortunate that the spirit of enquiry and the descriptive contributions of the early writers seem to have been tempered more by the degree of optimism or pessimism with which they anticipated the intellectual and behavioural foibles of old age, than by a desire to explore and evaluate systematically its possible deviations.


2004 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Streibel

AbstractMany Economists have pointed out that capital-funded pension systems are superior to pay-as-you-go-financed systems of old-age insurance; different proposals for reforming the German pay-as-you-go pension system have been presented. Although the necessity of a fundamental reform is almost common sense, consequent changes are regularly rejected by referring to lacks of economic justice. This paper analyses, what kind of reform serves justice from a constitutional economics point of view. Criteria are developed, which individuals behind a veil of ignorance would agree on and which therefore should be met by any reform proposal. Using these criteria, three prominent proposals for reforming the German public pension system are analysed.


Africa ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sjaak van der Geest

AbstractThis article presents fragments of conversation with elderly and younger people in the rural town of Kwahu Tafo. The statements of the various speakers are often contradictory. The borders between respect and hatred, admiration and envy, affection and fear prove porous. The article is an attempt to understand the changing sentiments of the young towards the old, and vice versa. Elders pronounce both blessings and curses. Their spiritual power is sometimes appreciated as wisdom, the fruit of lifelong experience. At other times that spiritual power is denounced as witchcraft. Theologically these statements sound confusing and contradictory. From a sociological point of view, however, they make sense. They express the basic ambivalence of young people towards the old. On one hand there is respect, a cultural code which is almost ‘natural’: one regards with awe and admiration what came before. On the other, old people engender resentment because of their overbearing attitude and their refusal to ‘go’. The fact that young people die while old people remain alive is a reversal of the natural order and reeks of witchcraft.


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