As people are living longer, retirement can mean the beginning of a long and fruitful stage in a person's life, writes Susan Calnan.
The drop in income and loss of entitlements is often the primary concern for people planning for retirement; but for some, the psychological fall-out of making the transition from working life to retirement can be significant and even traumatic.
For the last 30 years, the Retirement Planning Council of Ireland (RPC) has been running courses throughout the country, to help prepare people for their retirement and to plan for the future. One of the core areas that they address on their courses - in addition to finance, relationships and the use of time - is the emotional, physical and mental health of the retiree.
"Because people are living longer and are retiring earlier in their late 50s and early 60s, you now have this new phenomenon called the third age," outlines Eamon Donnelly, a retirement consultant with the RPC.
"One of the big priorities for people entering the third age is their health and wellbeing; it's not that a person's health automatically changes or deteriorates once they retire and enter into this third phase of their life, it's that they become more aware of the fact that without physical and mental wellbeing, they won't be able to enjoy this stage of their lives," he adds.
Over the last 75 years, the life expectancy of Irish people has risen dramatically. Male life expectancy, for example, has grown from 57.4 years in 1926 to 75.1 years in 2002, while female life expectancy has increased from 57.9 years to 80.3 years over the same period.
Latest projections issued by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland indicate that this is a trend that is set to continue, and that life expectancy is estimated to increase further for both sexes by 2036, to 82.5 years for males and 86.9 years for females.
Since people are living longer, retirement from the workplace is by no means the end of the road, but rather the beginning of a potentially long and fruitful stage in a person's life.
Nevertheless, making the transition from working life to retirement can be problematic and even distressing for some.
"Whereas before, people could gradually move towards retirement by working fewer days or less hours, today you have your going-away celebration on Friday, where work colleagues swear their undying affection to you, and by Monday you're on your own," Donnelly highlights.
"Making this change can be very difficult, particularly for men. Women, I think, are much better at adapting to change, such as physical and emotional changes or changing roles; whereas for a lot of men, their job is their life and they often have great difficulty in leaving that part of their lives go."
In addition to the loss of identity that many people experience after retirement, Donnelly outlines, the loss of social contact and lack of mental stimulation that follows can be equally traumatic for the individual.
Although the prospect of having endless hours of free time may be attractive in theory, in reality it can represent a vacuum of boredom and senselessness.
Identifying new ways to keep the mind sharp and stimulated, therefore, is one of the major challenges for retirees.
Donnelly recommends that people take up something that challenges their mind - for example, learn a new language, join a bridge club, take up a part-time job, do some voluntary work.
He is equally vociferous about the importance of variety and having a broad range of social contacts.
"Some people play golf all day long, once they retire; of course golf is a great game but the danger is that golf clubs become like monasteries for older men and that it's the only thing they have in their lives. As a result, they start to lose the wide range of social contacts they once had in their working lives," he says.
The financial implications of retirement are, of course, a central concern for most and getting proper financial advice to ensure financial security after retirement is essential.
Moreover, Donnelly highlights, the stresses and strains of having to struggle financially can be detrimental to a person's health and psychological wellbeing.
Another key area that the RPC addresses in its courses is physical wellbeing. Dr John Fleetwood, a regular lecturer on the RPC's pre-retirement courses encourages people to be more vigilant about their physical health and to look out for potential warning signs or physical changes. A regular check-up at least once a year with a GP is advisable he adds.
"In terms of diet and exercise, moderation is the key," Dr. Fleetwood highlights.
"A balanced diet and regular exercise, ideally for at least 30 minutes each day is essential."
Like Fleetwood, Dr Ríona Mulcahy - a consultant physician at Waterford Regional Hospital, who specialises in geriatric medicine and who also lectures on RPC courses - insists that preventative healthcare is crucial.
She says that one of the big messages that is coming out of the major conferences on ageing is the importance of healthy living in the middle years and the impact it can have on people's health later in life.
"Age is an unmodifiable risk factor for a lot of conditions but there are a lot of reversible risk factors that people can work on and the sooner they do so, the better," Dr. Mulcahy stresses.
Giving up smoking, adhering to a healthy diet, yearly checkups with a GP, regular monitoring of conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes and daily exercise are all important measures that should be implemented Mulcahy says.
She adds that the collective benefits of such measures can have an enormous impact on healthy ageing.
"When I give a talk, I often quote a statement by Gandhi that: 'almost everything you do in this world is insignficant, but it's still worth doing'," she highlights.
"And the same is true for a person's health: while you might think that the individual things you do in your middle years won't make a big difference, collectively they can have a significant impact, particularly as you get older."
Mental health is equally important, she says, and adopting a positive mental attitude as well as planning ahead for retirement is critical.
Dr Mulcahy explains that a positive perception of retirement is not only important for the person who is retiring but also for society as a whole. She insists that negative terms such as "bed blockers" and "step-down beds" should be discarded and instead society should start valuing the role of older people.
Eamon Donnelly agrees that society needs to re-define its perception of older people.
"The notion that everyone automatically goes into full-time care once they get older is an urban myth," he insists.
"In fact, only about 5 per cent of older people use full-time care and many older people age very well and at home.
"That is one of the overall messages of our pre-retirement courses: that health is one of the keys to a successful retirement and better quality of life and that people can age healthily and enjoy their retirement years, as long as they adopt a healthy lifestyle and positive mental outlook," adds Donnelly.
For further information on the RPC's courses, contact 01- 6613139, or visit www.rpc.ie.