Careers in Aging - Early Development Of The Field, The Contribution Of Higher Education, Career Opportunities, Future Career Opportunities
The rapid growth of the older population, especially the oldest old—those over eighty-five (Hobbs and Damon)—has resulted in a greater demand for a variety of services traditionally provided by the family. However, family structure has changed; in particular, women today are more likely to have commitments outside the home. Thus, professional service providers have started to offer assistance to older persons and careers in aging have come into being.
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At the same time that women began establishing careers outside the home, other conditions emerged which created a need for services to the elderly. Lower birthrates resulted in fewer adult children available to provide care; an increase in life expectancy led to more older persons with chronic diseases requiring many years of support; and the sheer numbers of the elderly increased dramatically. Al…
Encouraged by the availability of funding, faculty at American colleges and universities expanded their instructional offerings related to aging. Typically, at first noncredit workshops were conducted, but credit courses soon followed. The first national survey of gerontology courses offered, carried out in 1957, reported that only fifty-seven colleges and universities in the United States were of…
In 1987 the National Institute on Aging projected that the field of aging would grow dramatically, and that by 2000 many more professional gerontologists would be needed in a variety of fields (National Institute on Aging). Observations support these conclusions; however, it is widely accepted that instructional programs have not met the demand for trained professionals. The recruitment of person…
The oldest old, generally defined as those over the age of eighty-five, are the fastestgrowing portion of the older population. In 1900 there were 122,000 people in this category in the United States. By 1990 the number had increased to three million. This group will not grow as rapidly during the years between 2000 and 2010, because of the smaller number of people born during the 1930s, but after…
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