tailieunhanh - Healthy Ageing – Strengthen Community Action

Bechara et al. conducted their gambling task with a population of healthy adults and a population of individuals with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VM). They found that the VM patients, unlike the healthy adults, did not gradually shift their choices to the more advantageous deck B. Other studies employing Bechara’s design have found that individuals with damaged orbitofrontal cortex have an impaired ability at adapting their deck preferences to deck B in comparison to control subjects (Damasio, 1994). Denburg et al. (1999) administered this task with a population of healthy older adults and argued that the older individuals behave similarly to the frontal-lobe-damaged subjects. Our. | Healthy Ageing - Strengthen Community Action Nelson CHOW The University of Hong Kong 1 I Traditional ways of promoting the concept of healthy ageing at the community level The concept of healthy ageing did not exist in the past as it was unusual for a person to live beyond 70 years of age before the Twentieth Century. To be old was at the same time perceived to be frail and old age was therefore a period in which ill health was inevitable. Hence greater stress was placed on respecting elderly people rather than the promotion of healthy ageing. In Hong Kong traditional community activities to promote the concept of respecting old age can be seen as comprising the following 1 Community activities organized to promote the concept of respecting old age include holding community feasts for elderly people distributing gifts at special occasions conducting ceremonies to honour elderly people. 2 Community activities organized to enhance the lives of elderly people include picnics Cantonese opera sports and recreational activities etc. 3 Elderly festival The third Sunday of November has been 2 designated since the late 1980s as the Elderly Day by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and activities at the community level are organized to promote public concern for the elderly. However notwithstanding the good intentions of the above activities they have generally failed to make an impact on the public s respect for old age for two reasons 1 The activities have been organized FOR elderly people resulting in an image of the elderly as receivers of help and assistance. In some occasions inconsiderate arrangements like requiring elderly people to wait in open area for their turns to receive gifts have made the elderly appear very greedy further tarnishing their public image. 2 The activities have failed to improve the role and status of the elderly as the latter are often placed in a subordinate position as targets of support and concern. In fact very often the role and .