The extension of human life - destiny and problems On the Occassion of the International Year Devoted to Elderly Persons with a Particular Emphasis on the City and County of Zadar

Abstract

The significant increase in the number of eldery people and the demographic predictions which anticipate a world-wide threefold multiplication of the number of elderly people by the year 2030 point to the phenomenon of the demographic aging of the population of which Croatia is also a part. The purpose of the article is to analytically describe the age structure of people in the Zadar district and to elaborate the condition and the problems of the elderly in this region on the basis of statistical findings and gender defferences. Forms of welfare and care for the eldery are described and critically evaluated. Using as a point of departure old age and the process of growing old as both an individual and a social problem the authors address the aims of improving the quality of life of the elderly from the perspective of educational science: the reclamation of the dignity of life of the elderly within integrative cohabitation, the overcoming of prejudices concerning the eldery through education and teaching, making all age groups conscious of the role of old people, the development of love and empathy through the development of conceiving the time of the old and the old as the time of life, the development of selfperception of older and old people through their active and useful participation. The realization of these goals is envisioned through the mediation of educational institutions, religious communities and organizations, the media, through organized teaching and the self-education of older and old persons.