aging Archives | No Geraniums

How to Cross Personal and Social Boundaries?

March 1, 2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Why does a woman of 90 say: “I am not old. My neighbour is old.” And how old is your neighbour? “91.” With her statement, the 90-year-old woman emphasizes her independence. She warns you not to cross her personal boundaries. To cross personal and social boundaries is an effort.

The fear of crossing personal and social boundaries is a common human quality. Most people don’t want to ask others for help. The fear of losing independence is the biggest psychological threshold. On the other hand, nearly everybody is willing and prepared to help others.

Do Assistive Technologies Counteract Ageing Conditions?

February 15, 2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

All sorts of conditions determine our everyday behaviour and fix us in time and space. They seem to leave us very little room to manoeuvre. For instance, given time we will age. Fortunately, all kinds of assistive technologies can help us to cope with the conditions that inherently accompany ageing.

In a nutshell, assistive technology (AT) is anything, from an item to a piece of equipment to a piece of software to an entirely new product that helps increase, maintain, or improve the functional abilities of people.

Do assistive technologies help us or do they counteract everything we can do better ourselves?

How Do you Cherish your Sweet Memories?

February 1, 2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

The other day sweet memories awoke. A friend of mine posted a map of a small village at the Belgium border where I used to cycle with my race bike.

Especially when the sun was shining and I had some time off, I frequently went for a ride there. His post made me go back in time.

My memories of these rides swiftly and vividly came back to me. I was amazed at how precisely I could picture the tracks I used to ride.

Where I had to go left. Where the roads were rough. Or where I was going down or up and had to push for some extra power. Sweet memories indeed.

How to Organize Neighbourhood Care in a Sensible Manner?

January 19, 2022January 11, 2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Neighbourhood care is booming in the Netherlands and Germany. More and more citizens participate in social networks in their neighbourhoods to ensure care support.

Such shared support compensates for the rise of social, physical, psychological and cognitive shortcomings when ageing. Neighbourhood care is a clever choice when ageing.

With this type of self-organization, citizens compensate for the shortcomings of ageing and for the shortcomings of public and commercial care services.

Particularly given the current health crisis, these initiatives are more than welcome. However, how to organize neighbourhood care?

Does our Identity Change when we Age?

January 7, 2022December 30, 2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Does our identity change when we age? Why is this a relevant question? The sympathetic Belgian psychiatrist Paul Verhaeghe is very precise about this (from his book The end of psychotherapy): “Without identity, we are no more than our body.”

What is the core of our identity? What makes our identity so important? The answer Verhaeghe gives is very surprising: we have an identity because we share an enormous amount of human traits with other humans. The Latin identitas means similarity.