Population Ageing
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Population Aging: Challenges And Opportunities International Conference Prague, February 3–4, 2017 Conference Summary In the upcoming years, Europe’s proportion of people of age 65+ will continue to increase while all other age groups will decrease. European states are not united in facing aging issues and although their demographic trends do not indicate same numbers, they will be affected by population aging. In the long-term, this development could have negative economic and societal impacts on various European states. The “Population Aging: Challenges and Opportunities” conference within the long-term (eng)aging! Project aims at highlighting such problems, stimulate a constructive discussion, and help create conditions that will make use of the demographic change for the benefit of society. Petr Mazouch, the Vice Dean of University of Economics in Prague (the host institution of the event), opened the conference and stated that aging is a natural process and if we are not getting older we are dead. Population aging is a continuous process therefore we must prepare our expectations in order to fit these changes. In his opening speech, the director of Keynote, Jakub Klepal emphasized the importance of population aging in western societies concerning the economic, social, and political implications. Nevertheless, there are different trends and situations in different countries. Alexandre Sidorenko, a keynote speaker, spoke about aging situations and demographic changes in countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Although the trend of population aging is similar, life and healthy life expectancy are significantly lower compared to EU countries. Another keynote speaker, Juhani Ilmarinen, described more specifically trends prevailing in EU countries. Fertility rates are decreasing, working life rates are decreasing, and population will continue to increase (2010-2030). That is why it is critical that society learns to appreciate the skills and competences of all generations. Unfortunately, the age discrimination rate is highest in the 55-64 group. We need to create an age friendly working life for all generations as we have seen some positive examples - Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. 1 Population Aging: Challenges And Opportunities International Conference Prague, February 3–4, 2017 Jana Maláčová from Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs spoke about the steps made by the Czech Republic in facing the challenges and population aging. According to her, no national strategy will be effective without cooperation with the non-governmental sector, municipalities, and regions. Also, it is imperative to join the projects of all EU countries. Project “Social Innovations for Active and Healthy Aging”, represented by Dirk Jarré, aims at improving policies of EU states. He presented White paper 138, which proposes a solution for European decision makers as to what should be improved, regarding population aging. According to Mr. Jarre, “age is a matter of mind, if you do not mind, it does not matter”. Academy of Sciences researcher, Martin Simon, dedicated his presentation to demographic changes in Central Europe. None of the regions in Central Europe reaches the population replacement level and there is a different tempo of aging in each region. Moreover, some of the regions experience real population shrinkage. We should learn a lesson from these processes. Through the demographic research and relevant data evaluation we should be able to predict future costs, for example for health care, and define where we should build new infrastructure or invest money. Luisa D´Agostino and Maria Luisa Aversa, Italian INAPP researchers, presented the results of surveys focused on Italian companies and their aging workforce. The current situation is unsatisfactory; demographic aging is an unexplored field within Italian companies. Attention to workforce aging grows with increasing company size and age management strategies can only be found in the largest companies. Slovenian researcher Andrej Srakar studied data provided by SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) about older precarious workers in Europe and concluded that precarious workers are disadvantaged in all aspects – material, social and health issues. Some European countries have high numbers of precarious workers, thus we should aim at significantly improving their conditions. 2 Population Aging: Challenges And Opportunities International Conference Prague, February 3–4, 2017 Suzanne Oberleitner-Fulmek from Austria presented Nestor Gold and its program helping Austrian companies improve their working environments for employees of all ages and generations. It strives to develop successful inter-generation management and dialogue among all generations. Nestor Gold has been teaching companies for many years what productive aging needs and how the work organization should be adapted. The concept of productive aging is an approach that emphasizes the positive aspects of growing older. Another keynote speaker, Axel Borsch-Supan leads the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy and SHARE program (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe), which include 27 European countries and Israel. In his lecture, he focused on the scientific disproval of several common myths and prejudices about aging that exist within the social and economic debate. The scientific evidence illustrated, for instance, that older workers are as productive as younger workers and that keeping older workers longer in the working process does not create unemployment among young people. People usually assume the opposite. All the myths and prejudices about aging are fatal for handling the challenges of demographic change. Special guest, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Michaela Marksová, stressed that whatever actions we take now to improve the situation of elderly people, would in fact benefit us as we are all aging. Nowadays a person at the age of 50+ is not old and in fact possesses invaluable experience and ability to be very beneficial at work. This age allows living actively without any health limitations. Elderly people are a natural part of our society and we all should contribute to make them feel more comfortable. One of the main topics discussed was the concept of age management. Juhani Ilmarinen, a world-renowned expert on age management and the author of Work Ability Index (a tool of measuring work ability), led a special workshop on the results and experience of the Work Ability Index implementation in different countries. Stating that we need to move from words to deeds, he provided valuable data of implementing Work Ability 2.0 concept in Germany and Austria. His home country Finland has a long and very good 3 Population Aging: Challenges And Opportunities International Conference Prague, February 3–4, 2017 practice of managing different generations. He mentioned his extensive career in the Finish Institute of Occupational Work, which developed the concept of the Work Ability Index and has been working on new methods such as Personal Radar (measuring individual work well-being) and Company Radar (prioritize the fields, identify the actions for improvement). Professor Ilmarinen described both the methods very illustratively on “House of Work Ability”, a model of work ability promotion in organizations, and stressed the positive effect their implementation can have on prolonging work careers. Martina Miškelová from Age Management z.s. presented the results of Work Ability Index measurement in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic understands that its population is aging therefore it needs to balance its work and family lives. It must find a proper and effective way to maintain workers and employees at work as long as possible and in good health. The Work Ability Index is used as a tool to measure work ability. Ferenc Kudász presented Hungary´s WAI measurement results. He mentioned several characteristics of the Hungarian survey – in Hungary they focused on distribution of specific diseases in specific sectors and professions because diseases have serious effects on work ability. Another conference keynote speaker and expert on health literacy Jan Holčík pointed out that what can be done for better health is not only a task for our healthcare system but also a question of individual responsibility. The life expectancy in the Czech Republic is quite high among other EU member states, but it is 4 years lower in comparison to Sweden and the difference is bigger if we take into account healthy life years. The difference is not just a result of medical care, professor Holčík sees the cause in the way people of both countries take care of their personal health. The comparison of pure alcohol consumption in the Czech Republic and Sweden shows that the Czechs consume twice as much as the Swedes. In Sweden, public health literacy is higher. The Czech Republic needs to empower its 4 Population Aging: Challenges And Opportunities International Conference Prague, February 3–4, 2017 health literacy – cognitive and social skills, which determine motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to useful information. This can assist in promoting and maintaining good health. Our common responsibility is healthy population aging. The Chief diversity officer of the Erste Group (also Česká spořitelna) Vera Budway-Strobach was the key person pushing the implementation of age management in the company.