Janice Chia - Aging Is a Social and Economic Opportunity, Not a Demographic Disaster

Search

Loading...

News

Latest News

Nov 11, 2015
by Heather Jaber
Janice Chia - Aging Is a Social and Economic Opportunity, Not a Demographic Disaster

Founder and managing director of Ageing Asia on why it is important to include the elderly in the wider community

Janice Chia speaks at the session on Aging Societies

For many, the first thing that comes to mind with aging societies is health. But aging not just about medical care, says Janice Chia, founder and managing director of Ageing Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore. “Today we all believe that we can age in place, we can live a fulfilling life, and we can be stronger as we age,” she says. “There are so many things that we could adopt as ideas that will make aging better.”

For that reason, Chia, the co-chair of the Salzburg Global session on Aging Societies: Advancing Innovation and Equity, founded Ageing Asia with the hope of changing the future of aging in the Asian context. The organization looks at models of aging in other contexts to adapt better practices. Chia and her colleagues focus on market development, idea sharing, and media engagement in their goal to change the image and industry of aging. 

The market potential of aging in the Asia-Pacific region alone is a lucrative one, says Chia. According to the Asia Pacific Silver Economy Business Opportunities Report produced by Ageing Asia, the untapped market potential for the aging market in Asia Pacific is forecasted to be a $3.3 trillion dollar industry by 2020.

“What are people aged over 60 likely to spend as they age?” asks Chia. “And not just on health care services, because I always believe that aging is more than just medicine. It’s everything that an older person spends on that will make their lives happy.” The ways to achieve this happiness may lie in products and services that will enhance health longevity, says Chia, but also services like leisure activities, learning opportunities, and employment opportunities.

In the workplace, explains Chia, it is important to shift the ways we think about productivity when we consider aging societies. “I think it’s about putting their roles into project roles where it’s determined by the outcomes of the KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] that you deliver rather than by how many hours a day spent,” she said. “So if the jobs are remodeled into tasks and projects, then that’s a different way in terms of measurements.”

One way that Chia has worked to re-envision aging as an opportunity rather than a problem has been through her project ASPIRE55, Asia’s first virtual retirement village. The initiative replicates the clubhouse of a retirement village in a virtual sense. While retirement homes may provide accommodation and care, the new generation of older people are less connected to their neighbors than the generation before, explains Chia, so there is a greater need to connect to community.

“It was an initiative to keep people out of nursing homes and to enable people to age in place in their own homes. The biggest challenge of aging in place is dying in place,” she adds. What distinguishes this from other services for the elderly is its focus on the social issues that arise with aging, such as feelings of isolation, the loss of networks, and the affordability of care.

Of her experience at the session, Chia says it was useful for the opportunity to engage in intellectual thought and develop new ideas on aging.

“I think right from the start jumping into the discussions with people with different experiences from around the world showed us that it’s not so different how people want to age in one country compared another country, and everyone is facing same issues and challenges of aging…Here at Salzburg, the environment allowed a lot of interaction and open exchange of ideas.”


Janice Chia was co-chair at Aging Societies: Advancing Innovation and Equity, which is part of the multi-year series Designing a Social Compact for the 21st Century. The session was held in partnership with Wirtschaftskammer Österreich and is sponsored by TIAA-CREF Financial Services and Tsao Foundation. More information on the session can be found here: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/540. For more information on Designing a Social Compact for the 21st Century, please visit: socialcompact.salzburgglobal.org