Growing Into Senior Citizenship

When we think of senior citizens, our minds often land on age 65. There is a misconception that a senior citizen is someone who has retired from work and is slowing down in their life. However senior citizenship is much more than an age-based social demographic: it refers to having both rights and responsibilities, such as obeying the law and paying taxes, but also being active community participants (Institute for Canadian Citizenship, 2012). While seniors may welcome ongoing community engagement, multiple barriers may limit our ability to engage in citizenship activities.

“I’ve been committed to speaking out against injustice all of my life. Theatre pieces throughout my life have all centered around social justice, as has my employment. I have worked for many non-profit organizations and immersed myself in feminism and social justice activism from a young age until now.

Recently, I have been focused on advocating for other low-income seniors in my hometown. My attempts at navigating the application for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, as well as trying to locate funding for new glasses and a hearing aid, made it clear that the government and funding systems for low-income older adults are wholly inadequate, non-existent, and a nightmare. I have been persistent in bringing these concerns forward to city hall in attempts to have a clear list of services and funding developed for low-income seniors.”

– Cuinn (story gathered by Adrien Davidson, an occupational therapy student)

There are multiple ways to meaningfully exercise our citizenship: we can help neighbours, donate to a charity, or advocate for a community cause. Some cultures view our senior years as the prime time for advocacy efforts since we bring years of lived experience and knowledge of how the world works.

Volunteering Time & Skills

Volunteering can offer a range of opportunities to suit your skills and interests. Some examples include:

• Serving on a board of directors or as a part of a committee; 
• Participating in a craft group that makes gifts for donation or sale; 
• Delivering or preparing meals;
• Providing reception services, or assistance in-school programs;
• Providing transportation;
• Helping out in parks with tours and cleanups.

Leadership and advocacy roles

Senior citizens have an important role to play in advocacy, activism, and nurturing our community. We can use our experience, skills, and time to forge solutions that address pressing social problems. This might involve conventional advocacy methods such as letter writing, petitions, and marches; or online forms of social media to raise awareness about health and social issues. For example, many seniors are involved in age-friendly community initiatives that support efforts to create more accessible and age-inclusive public spaces. The Stephen Lewis Foundation supports the Grandmother’s Campaign where Canadian grandmothers support African Grandmothers who have had to take on the raising of grandchildren whose parents have become ill or passed away due to HIV/AIDS. The seniors’ led organisation Care Watch Ontario advocates for needed changes to home and community support services for older adults and is always in need of volunteers to support their work. To hear the story of life-long advocate and proud senior citizen, Bea Levis, click here.

Mentoring

For many seniors, personal life goals have been achieved. This puts us in an optimal position for providing mentorship. Intergenerational mentoring is an opportunity to make connections with younger people who feel lost in the sea of opportunities. Peer mentoring can support other older people going through a similar illness or life changes that we have previously navigated.

Mentorship provides the unique opportunity to teach, challenge, and support the mentee, as well as act as a role model. What’s more, we gain valuable insights through mentoring, learning more about the world and ourselves. 

Engaging in citizenship activities can boost overall health. For example, community engagement and civic participation can keep us active and fend off illness. Volunteering, for as little as one hour a week, can result in cognitive and emotional benefits. A study conducted by the University of Calgary found that people who volunteered for at least one hour a week regularly were 2.44 times less likely to develop dementia than seniors who did not volunteer. Many studies have also found volunteering to be associated with happiness.

One of the most common problems that seniors face is loneliness due to the separation from family and friends, as well as retirement from full-time work. Social networks may also shrink. As such, finding ways to engage in our communities and exercising our senior citizenship is an important way to become integrated into the community and reduce the risk of social isolation. It can help us meet new people with similar interests and values, leading to new friendships or rekindling old ones. This social support may help us cope with the various challenges we face as we age, maintain a sense of purpose, belonging and achievement, as well as provide opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge.

Participation in leadership, advocacy, and volunteering also ensures the growth and protection of the communities in which we will age.

While we may have more time to exercise citizenship in our golden years, changes in physical abilities, in combination with inaccessible public spaces, can limit how some of us can exercise our senior citizenship. For instance, those of us with mobility limitations may have difficulty travelling to a polling booth, accessing the ballot, and casting a vote. 

Civic participation may also be restricted due to disabling social and physical environments. For example, if we live in rural communities where public transportation is limited and travel distances are greater, attending advocacy groups or volunteer opportunities can be a challenge.

Ageism shows itself in the way people treat older adults differently based on stereotypes or assumptions that we are incompetent, frail or are rigid in our thinking. Ageist forces often dictate what we are expected to do and how we exercise our senior citizenship. Without our knowledge, we may internalise these ageist ideas and limit ourselves from functioning at our full capacity.

“I first met John two months after the passing of his wife. It was a long and difficult journey for the 2 years prior. John had used up all of their financial resources, was at the brink of social isolation, and was neglecting his own self-care in order to fully attend to his wife. He was still very attached to his wife and to the palliative program where he had spent the majority of his time over the last 2 years. He expressed wanting to do ‘something’ but was not sure what he could do.

Together we explored several options to re-introduce John to routines, structured duties, socialization, physical activities, and access to peer support. Leveraging his strength as a caregiver and an expert as a project manager, I introduced him to assist in diagnostic imaging. This allowed John to build comfort in helping patients other than his own wife and help the department to finetune a troublesome patient flow process. After only a few shifts, he immediately felt this transition was a good match for him. He reported volunteering just twice a week provided an anchor and structure for the rest of the week. The sense of responsibility reminded John of the importance of self-care so that he could continue to help others. He began to build a small but steady social networks by attending staff huddles and recognition events for volunteers.”

– Aaron Yuen, occupational therapist

Occupational therapists recognize the importance of senior citizenship and strive to support us to engage in those senior citizenship and community activities that bring us joy and meaning. An occupational therapist will consider our unique lifestyle when providing strategies to enable our participation in these meaningful activities in the community.

They can help us identify the barriers preventing us from fully engaging in the community and work with us to determine solutions and strategies to overcome these barriers to meet our goal of meaningful participation. The occupational therapist might introduce and show us how to safely use the appropriate mobility devices to get to where we need to go, or to navigate online social media platforms so we can connect with others involved in mutual support or advocacy. The occupational therapist might work with us to find a match between our skills and existing community volunteering or interest groups. occupational therapists meet us where we’re at and help us to become involved in the community on our terms.