Sociology Club of our university organized online events on 24-25-26 March to raise awareness on the elderly population, old age, and elderly health as part of the ‘18-24 March Respect for the Elderly Week’. The speakers of the events were Asst. Prof. Burcu ÖZDEMİR OCAKLI from Ankara University Faculty of Health Sciences, Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Fatih AYSAN from Marmara University Faculty of Letters and Asst. Prof. Gökhan KURT from Sivas Cumhuriyet University Vocational School, respectively.
On the first day of the event, Asst. Prof. Burcu ÖZDEMİR OCAKLI delivered a speech titled ‘The Pandemic and Old Age’. ÖZDEMİR OCAKLI started her speech by explaining how the elderly, who are in a disadvantaged position, were affected by the changes experienced during the past Covid-19 pandemic and talked about the health risks of the elderly in the pandemic period. She stated that the health of elderly individuals progresses negatively in terms of physical health and they are less affected in terms of mental health during the pandemic period. Finally, she mentioned that local administrations, municipalities, and NGOs should play a more active role in providing care support, especially for the elderly in need of care, in accordance with social protection policies.
On the second day of the event, Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Fatih AYSAN delivered a speech titled ‘Turkey’s Demographic Transformation: Opportunities and Risks’. In his speech, AYSAN stated that with the development of communication technologies and the widespread use of the internet, interactions have developed differently from previous years, and he explained Turkey’s demographics and the opportunities and risks in the social field in the transformation it is going through today. He noted that one of the most important issues in social changes and in terms of social policies is the changes in the family structure, where the rapid aging of the population in connection with the transformation in the family structure and economic dynamics is one of the prominent challenges for social policies. He further added that demographic aging is a result of the demographic transformation experienced by many industrialized countries, especially Western Europe and Japan, in the 2000s, and that this situation will also occur in Turkey in the near future.
On the third and last day of the event, Asst. Prof. Gökhan KURT gave a speech titled ‘Aging as a Social Problem’. Talking about his work in the context of the sociology of aging, KURT highlighted the social dimension of old age. He stated that old age as a social phenomenon is an important social problem concerning the social structure, and in this respect, old age is one of the areas of interest of social policy. Later in his speech, he mentioned that the elderly are more likely to encounter not only health problems but also problems associated with old age. Finally, he added that some of these problems are caused by the physical, psychological, economic, and social situation of the elderly and some of them are caused by environmental and social conditions other than the elderly.
The audience consisting of our university students, club members and students from different universities followed the speeches with great interest.
