April 22, 2020
“The Future of Aging! This book is a fantastic resource that will help organizations, institutions and regions to further innovate in the field of aging – for societal and economic impact. It provides a fresh perspective on the field of aging and on the potential of innovation to address demographic changes.
The point of view developed in the book allows to rethink aging as the starting point for innovation – across industries and institutions – to design inclusive solutions to improve the experience of aging for everyone. At the heart of the authors’ perspective is the much-needed holistic understanding of well-being: supporting older adults in living well across all aspects of life, in their own terms. In order to ensure sustainable impact in this context, stakeholders need to stop considering community, healthcare, technology, identity, and financial well-being needs as siloes. They rather need to see those as interrelated dimensions of equal importance for building a better future of aging.
The often paternalistic (“ageistic?) or “technology-push” approaches to innovation in aging will not work in this new context. Industries will have to account for the diversity of culture, experience, and ability that defines the aging population to be successful in designing and implementing efficient, effective and sustainable solutions. Most importantly, they will need to engage these aging adults in collaborative design when it comes to innovation.
This is book provides a much needed « reboot » of the perspective on how society needs to engage with the aging population. It also a reminder of the limits to current approaches to aging.
Innovation for the future of aging will include new policies, services, products, technologies, living spaces, and even approaches to shaping inter-generational communities—all of which will be transformative for the lives of older adults. The potential societal and economic returns from innovation for the future of aging are immense, and therefore need to be prioritized.
A must read!”
