BRIDGING THE DISTANCES, AN INTEGRATED APPROACH (in Moving forward for an Ageing Society: Bridging the distances pag: 7-8)

In order to address both primary and secondary consequences of an increasing ageing population, our societies are called today to adopt a completely new mind-set. Studies and policy exercises carried out at national and international level, seem to address the issue of Ageing societies from unilateral sector-based perspectives. Even the health sector, generally considered as having the most wide-ranging approach, runs the risk of providing only an incomplete picture compared to the complexity of the problem. Concentrating on single issues instead of looking at the problem as a whole, could lead to the kind of perverse incentives that have slowed down the implementation of a very ambitious exercise, such as the Millennium Development Goals, set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000.