Age vs. Need: Interview Scenarios

Unit 6: Age vs. Need

1) Separately interview two people, unrelated, who are at least 65. Ask them to think over their lives and the decisions they made / experiences they had that have affected their current lives. Specifically have them consider their childhoods (e.g., parents’ social class, number of children, location, etc.), education, employment, marriage (if relevant), parenting, lifestyle choices, random good and bad luck, etc. (see pp. 4-5 of this file, Social Class). How would their lives be different now if they had made opposite decisions or had opposite experiences in the past?

2) Separately interview two black Americans who were born prior to 1945 (so they have clear memories of the Jim Crow era). Ask them to discuss how they personally experienced discrimination and how they were personally affected. Ask how family members and friends were affected. What impact did the Civil Rights movement have on them at that time? (1950s and 1960s)

3) Ask two people (unrelated) who are retired and who are willing to share details of their finances with you, how much they have in pension / retirement plan income, how much they have in Social Security income, and how much they have in “other” income. Do they feel their overall income is adequate? What adjustments have they had to make to their budgets / lifestyles since they retired? Ask them to look over the proposals for changing Social Security. Which one do they like best and why? Which one do they like least and why?

Unit 7: Other Issues

1) If you know someone (or more than one someone) over age 60 who has been the victim of one of the scams, and they are willing to talk about it, ask them what happened, how they handled it, etc. (You need at least two pages’ worth of information here, so this may not be possible.)

2) Go talk with someone who works in the attorney general’s office or possibly a local police department or some other organization about how they deal with fiduciary abuse / scams targeting older adults. What kinds of cases are the most common, how are they handled, what are they typical outcomes, how do older adult victims differ from younger victims, etc.? What cases have “stuck with them”?

3) If you know someone who is at least 70 and lives in a rural area or very small town (and not near a large city – someone who would have to drive at least 45 minutes to get to any kind of specialist or large grocery store, etc.) – ask them what they like about where they live, what kind of support they would have if they were too ill to get around (say, a bad bout with the flu for a week or so), and then ask them if they have thought about what they would do if they needed to recover from a broken hip or a stroke. How would they manage that? What if they developed vision problems and could no longer drive? Ask if they are familiar with telemedicine (explain it if they are not) and what they think of some of the ways a person can use it. If they already use it, have them explain how.

(Be careful on this one – some people won’t like being reminded that living in the rural area might not work!)

(If you don’t get enough for two full pages, you can interview a second person.)

4) If you know a health professional (doctor, physical therapist, nurse, etc.) who spends some of his/her/their time in a rural area, ask them what issues/problems they most frequently encounter, how they practice “differently” in the rural area vs. a large city, what the biggest barriers are to effective treatment, and what advice they would offer to anyone else planning to work at least some of the time in a rural community. If they use telemedicine, how do they use it and what are the benefits?

5) Interview two people you know (not in the same household) who are at least 65 about their discretionary spending. What categories (travel, entertainment, family, etc.) does their discretionary spending fall into and why those? (See p. 17 of the Unit 6 file.) Ask them to review the ads in this file and comment on the ones they find most appealing – why are those ads appealing?