Education - the way to quality of life in senior age

Education - the path to quality of life in senior age We hold the opinion that not only young people should have their place in society, but also older people, and the life experience and wisdom of old people should be balanced by the activity of young people. Aging is a natural process that completes the biological development of a person. Old age and aging is not only an individual problem, but also a societal problem. The issue of old age has biological, social and psychological aspects (Balogová, 2005). The increase in the number of elderly population leads to increased attention to aging issues.

The social status of older people is low and negative personality traits and low competence are attributed to them (Balogová, 2005). Therefore, it is important that society accepts old age, because seniors are an integral part of it. The aim of society is not to segregate the elderly and old people, but to integrate them into society (Kalanin, 2008). This integration will be ensured by proper social relations, interactions between generations, a considerable amount of tolerance, as older people cannot be treated as objects to be manipulated, but they should decide their own affairs. If the integration model does not work well, isolation and helplessness occur. An elderly person has feelings of insecurity, anxiety, a sense of alienation from society.

We can identify with the statement that the level of society is judged by how the society can take care of its old, sick members in adverse situations. By losing older people, society loses a wealth of experience and creative potential. Currently, society's attitude towards older people is rather negative. The elderly represent little or no economic contribution to society. As a result, there is discrimination against old people in society, which is discussed in the theory of ageism. This is an attitude that expresses a belief in the low value and incompetence of old age, is reflected in the underestimation of old people and is a manifestation of resistance to old age (Balogová, 2003).

Important social aspects include the relationship of older people to various social groups, especially to the family. Other social aspects include adequate health and social security for the elderly, their lifestyle, a beneficial change in the way they spend their free time, etc. (Kalanin, 2003). For successful aging, it is necessary for an older person to adapt to the decline in physical strength and health, to cope with entering retirement and a drop in income, to create positive relationships among acquaintances, to cope with the death of a life partner and to be able to meet social and public demands. These demanding tasks can only be handled if a person is a balanced personality, with real life goals, real self-evaluation and a sufficiently wide range of interests. A fundamental step in successfully surviving the aging crisis is for a person to accept the fact that they are getting older. It is wrong to just endure old age and passively submit to it. You need to be able to accept it and prepare positively for it.

Quality of life in senior age

The quality of life is conditioned by the social status, economic security and, last but not least, the health status of seniors (Balogová, 2003). Quality of life is at the same time a subjective experience of one's condition and can be good even with an unfavorable development of the health situation. The feeling of independence, the ability and the possibility to decide one's own fate is very important for psychological balance and the ability to cope with stressful situations (Dirgová, 2010). Therefore, the priority of social work is to maintain an acceptable quality of life for each individual. It is necessary to address the issue of adaptation of the individual to old age, the goal of which is to maintain a functional balance between the individual and the environment that surrounds him. The evaluation of the quality of life becomes one of the main procedures for planning and evaluating the results of social and health care, which is conditioned by the approach of social and health workers to clients. The decisive factor is the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the client (Dirgová, 2010).

The success of adaptation to old age depends on the individual, personal equipment of the individual, but also on the degree of help and support from society. A person needs other people to live and survive (Kalanin, 2008). Social workers focus primarily on intergenerational relationships and bonds, or on their deficit in the lives of old people and its consequences. Attention is also paid to the issue of economic security for seniors. Sufficient economic security enables a quality experience of old age. The adaptive capacity of seniors is also reduced by the presence of somatic diseases, while it is true that the risk of adaptation failure increases with severe illness or loss of mobility (Kalanin, 2003). Complex care for older citizens therefore includes aspects of health, psychological, economic and social care. Old people are often disoriented in today's hectic times, losing their vital physical and mental abilities. It thus requires a certain amount of necessary help in ensuring necessary life activities and habits.

In the world, more and more people are living to old age, who desire quality of life even in this part of life. As the average human age increases, experiencing old age takes on a new quality. Old age represents a period of life with specific qualities. It is therefore important to point out the right to a dignified old age and to think about the possibilities of how to change the current perception of old people in society. Even an old person must have the right to make decisions about himself and his own life, because human dignity is independent of age or health, and that is why a person cannot encroach on the dignity of another person (Štefko, 2003).

Spirituality as an attribute of quality of life

When examining the quality of life, subjective feelings when experiencing senior age, we also often come across the concept of spirituality. Spirituality is one of the attributes of quality of life (Štefko, 2003). Aging captures the entire bio-psycho-social-spiritual spectrum of an individual's life, while the spiritual aspect also belongs to the image of an older person. Spirituality inevitably belongs to the life of a senior, it gives it a certain meaning. Religiosity complements the personality of an elderly person with balance with life, the so-called satisfaction in the soul, enriches it with wisdom, generally valid experience of humanity, etc. (Kalanin, 2003). It is human dignity that has become the basis for the personnel standard on which all fair ethical systems of society are built. Human dignity is an inalienable value of every person, which results from the fact of being a person in the entire breadth of human existence, from conception to natural death (Štefko, 2003).

Senior age education

In contemporary gerontology, more and more attention is paid to the so-called a vital mechanism of life that supports the ability of individuals to slow down adverse changes associated with old age. One of the possibilities is the creation of the so-called the second life program, the content of which can be educational activities of various kinds (Balogová, 2005). Institutional and free-time types of educational programs are very popular, such as universities of the third age, lecture series within pensioners' clubs and professional meetings in senior associations. The free time available to old people needs to be filled appropriately. It is necessary for seniors to return to active work, to engage in socially useful work, or to get a chance to show their experience in the work process as well (Drgová, 2010).

Theories of active aging in aging centers assume the persistence of needs even in old age – especially the needs for active activity and utility. However, their decline occurs with retirement. Seniors who study at universities of the third age suffer from depression to a lesser extent, have an increased motivation to acquire new knowledge, feel the need to make quality use of their free time and are more optimistic at the level of survival, feeling better, younger and healthier (Křivohlavý, 2011). It is desirable not to exclude old people from the process of education, which ceases to be an exclusive preparation for a certain profession, but becomes a means for lifelong development of the human personality.

Universities of the third age as a form of education for seniors

The negative manifestations of old age do not depend only on age, but are often the result of a feeling of loneliness and exclusion from the life of society (Křivohlavý, 2011). Experiences from universities of the third age, which were also established in Slovakia, show that even an old person can feel useful in the family and in society. The University of the Third Age (UTV) is one of the progressive forms of education for seniors. UTV does not provide a comprehensive university education, even if the volume and level of information transmitted is "university", since university teachers lecture to their listeners on UTV. Education at UTV is divided into several semesters with different specializations. The university of the third age offers seniors education in the most diverse areas of life and thus expands the level of the current state of their knowledge. Receiving knowledge at lectures also encourages the listener to independent educational activity and supplementing information in the area he already knew, or he chose to expand his knowledge a new field of knowledge that he was always interested in, but due to lack of time in his productive age did not have time to devote to it. Education thus becomes a senior's life program. The motives for studying are different, but the goal is always the same - to maintain a realistic view of the world, to find the meaning of life and the order of the day, to maintain social contacts with people with the same interests and needs.

The ability to complete educational activities positively affects the self-image, self-confidence of an elderly person and the perception of self-worth. A listener or university graduate of the third age who has been able to integrate into social interactions can very positively influence the way of thinking of those around him, as inactive old people often live in social and mental segregation and have a tendency to dogmatic thinking and negative evaluation of phenomena.

Demographic changes pose new challenges for education at universities of the third age. It is therefore appropriate to reflect the requirements for the education of seniors, to expand the offer of study fields, to update the areas of interest in education and also to take into account the level of education of incoming students, who often have a university education. In this way, UTV can contribute to the preparation for the wise and good aging of its listeners.

Conclusion

The tendency to take stock of one's own life, to understand it, to reevaluate all one's experiences is a natural phenomenon in old age. Old people, who are suddenly separated from their work and can no longer offer their knowledge on the labor market, also feel excluded from the educational process. If older people get the opportunity to actively participate in social, cultural and associational life, it has a positive effect on their quality of life. Seniors should take an active interest in social events and spend their free time usefully.

Author: PhDr. Mgr. Eva Dirgová PhD.

LITERATURE

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