Instead of those terms, more neutral phrases are preferred, such as “older adult”, “older person” or “people over 65”. It is also suggested to eliminate fatalistic or negative phrases about the aging of the population, such as “silver tsunami”, from writing and using a preferred phrase, such as “the growth of older people”. The fact that Dychtwald and Morison use several different terms to describe older people reflects the difficulty of finding the right words. I think it's relatively easy to find a word for the larger group.
I would call those over 85 “elderly”, which connotes wisdom and respect. It also indicates that this cohort is larger. For Tomás Moro, on the island of Utopia, when people are so old that they have survived themselves and have a terminal illness, they feel pain and are a burden for everyone, the priests urge them to choose to die. So what are the terms we should use to address this demographic of modern adults without offense? Despite doing exactly what their trusted advisors had told them to do: enroll in Medicare, save a lot of money, buy long-term care insurance and create an estate plan, Rajiv's clients were forced to enter institutions, lost their assets due to the costs of unplanned care, and placed a burden for their families.
Too many people hate the term “old”, despite efforts by some to make that term more acceptable. More important for predicting and preparing for the care needs of older people is the number of people turning 85, which will increase dramatically in about 10 years, when older baby boomers begin to cross this threshold. Unlike the developed world, where chronological age determines retirement, societies in developing countries determine old age based on a person's ability to actively contribute to society. When it comes to accurately describing this stage of life, the authors state: “We need a term that older people can adopt and that doesn't offend.
That means that the need for long-term care services will also more than double over the next two decades, and our system is already exhausted. When defined in a legal context, the term senior citizen is often used for legal or policy-related reasons to determine who is eligible to receive certain benefits available to that group of age.
