How about why we devalue them so much? Native Americans, for example, valued their elderly for their wisdom and experience. Nowadays we ship grandma off to “the home” as soon as she falls and breaks a hip or can’t care for herself any more. You know, as few as 50 years ago, in America, the children would take in their parents when they got too elderly to take care of themselves any longer and return the favor, by taking care of them just as they took care of their children when they were little? Now it’s simply “thanks mom and dad, don’t forget me in your will” when the kids move out.

Personally, I would love to sit in on that debate. I love debates and love playing “devil’s advocate” but that subject is one I simply have a hard time doing that with. I honestly can only come up with a couple points for the other side’s arguments, and quite honestly, they’re pretty weak.

Elder abuse is a topic that I feel strongly about.

I worked at a care home and it is very sad. The elderly are put in those homes when their families can’t or won’t take care of them. What makes me mad is when they are put into those homes and the families never or rarely visit them, now in my opinion that is the worst abuse one can do to the elderly.

Now it is true Alzheimer’s patients don’t remember that their family was there an hour ago.

I saw on the news where a 20 something beat up an elderly gent who was 102 and this was caught on video and he was beaten badly.

Good luck

How about: “Should the age at which elderly receive Social Security benefits be raised?” Since people are living longer lives now, the system is taxed. Raising the age would save money. You could add some research about the how’s and why’s the system was put in place to start with in the 1930s and 1940s.

How about the benifits and downfalls of our current assisted living/nursing home system? You can find all kinds of info both ways… it would be an interesting topic… sort of like “Should we be putting grandma and grandpa in a nursing home?” I’ve worked in one and have seen both sides of the debate… Good Luck!

Another one I heard about through Harvard model Congress was dealing with driving privileges for the elderly. Should there be more restrictions on their licenses or a greater regulation on renewal.

the total mess in social security, why should younger people listen to their elders even if this day of modern technology, wisdom,

For or against taking your elderly parents into your home or putting them in elder care, is the medial field keeping older people alive just to such all their money out of them even tho the dr’s know the person is dying (the answer to this is yes 🙂

Should the elderly be taxed on the property they already own?

Should the elderly be denied healthcare benefits/welfare because they own such property?

how about the treatement of the elderly in nursing homes/assisted living centers?

you might like to write about the shortage of qualified staff in nursing homes

http://www.uic.edu/classes/socw/socw550/AGING/sld046.htm

I think one of these topics would make a great debateable paper.