he Aging in the 21st Century and the Need for Professionals in Gerontology

Abstract

This article aims to invite the reader to reflect on the aging situation from three different levels: 1) Explaining some international and regionals recommendations on education and old age;  2) Pointing out some characteristics of the population aging; and, 3) Describing the academic training and the advantages of the professionals in gerontology, as essential objectives for reflection. Professional gerontology must be able to unify the past, the present and the future by analyzing the challenges of aging in its social evolution; explaining the demographic transition processes; preventing and taking part in the epidemiological transition processes; predicting residential trends and explaining new varieties of family structuring.