An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Interdependence With Suggestions for Aging Services Providers

We are interdependent throughout life and should avoid positioning people to feel as if they have failed when we all need, ask for, receive, and offer support throughout life. Scholars in many fields recognize interdependence as a component of the human condition throughout life. However, U.S. society, and aging services providers in particular, are deeply attached to "remaining independent," which plays into people's fears of becoming dependent and a sense of failure when support is needed. Here, we argue that efforts should be directed toward reframing understanding of our relational state. We argue that there needs to be a shift from implicit and impossible assumptions about maintaining independence to understanding how interdependence already exists and can promote greater well-being. We present a conceptual review of interdependence from various disciplinary perspectives, offer a rationale for dismantling the binary language of dependency, and suggest alternatives to the independence narrative commonly found in aging services industries.