“Flip the Script on Aging”

by MARIA CIMINI

May is just around the corner, and it is Older Americans month!

As you flip the page on your calendar, think about this year’s national theme for month, “Flip the Script on Aging”. We know the words we use matter, so at the Office of Healthy Aging (OHA), along with our federal partners, we will be having conversation about how society perceives, talks about, and approaches aging.

In Rhode Island, we’ve been at the forefront of this conversation. It was back in 2019 that we changed the name of the Division of Elderly Affairs to the Office of Healthy Aging. Why would we do that? We were flipping the script on aging!

The word “elderly” may conjure images of frailty, illness, or someone who needs significant care.  While certainly there are older adults who need care, there are just as many, if not more, that are aging in a new way. Rhode Island’s older adult population is vibrant and engaged as they age.

We can’t help but see the positive impact of older adults in our communities across the state. The largest age cohort in the state is 60-64 year olds, and those over age 60 make up nearly 270,000 Rhode Islanders.

The focus of this column last month was about senior centers, and in senior centers throughout the state, it is common for the staff to be peers of those who are participants.

There are other established peer-based programs available in neighborhoods throughout the state. The Village Common of RI supports communities of older adults connecting with other older adults in their neighborhoods. Those older adults share their time and talent with their neighbors (villagecommonri.org).

And the Americorps Senior Companion program offers similar companionship and support among lower-income older adults.

Older adults support young children, too; they serve as foster grandparents at places like the Orchard Farms, Gladstone, Holliman and Park Elementary Schools, just to name a few.

Even in spaces not traditionally focused on older adults, older adults are actively engaged.  Did you know that in 2022, the student speaker at the CCRI commencement was a 61-year-old graduate? In his comments he said, “We are capable, smart, and we are always stronger together.”

Flipping the script on aging means recognizing people who are providing care and receiving care; people who are mentoring new generations of leaders and people who are learning from those new generations of leaders; and importantly, valuing the wisdom and experience of older adults to inform society today and what we are building toward tomorrow.

You’ll notice that we are flipping the script by not using “elderly” or “senior”, all those words that you may have heard used before in reference to the aging population.

Rather, we’re talking about older adults; they’re just another category of adulthood and are distinct from the category of younger adults. By using ‘older adult’ we recognizes the wisdom, the experience, and valuable the contributions still to be made by people into their sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond.

Today’s older adults have changed the way aging looks like in the United States their entire lives.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s, today’s older Rhode Islanders may have been at the forefront of breaking racial barriers, promoting gender equity, or advancing accessibility in public spaces. It is no wonder, then, that they’ve brought that same idea of flipping the script by creating a life of their own into older adulthood.

Watch this space to continue to learn about programs available to older adults in Rhode Island. You can engage, too. How do you think about aging? What should we do in Rhode Island to support full engagement of older adults in every aspect of life. Help us to highlight the work of older Rhode Islanders by sharing your thoughts https://oha.ri.gov/get-help/feedback.

Maria Cimini is the director of the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging.