Prevalence of ageism - Time to stop this prejudice

IN “Say No to Ageism Week” Mick O’Dwyer certainly gave the cause a boost at Croke Park yesterday.

Three organisations — the National Council on Ageing and Older People, the Equality Authority, and the Health Service Executive — have banded together for the past five years to highlight the problems of ageism. But their performance has left much to be desired, because ageism is endemic throughout Irish society.

Ageism is defined as a negative attitude that leads to stereotyping of older people in a manner that prompts discrimination against them. It promotes the idea that older people are a burden. All right-thinking people must tackle this attitude, because it fuels grave injustices.

Within the health sector older people are often characterised as “bed blockers”. They are frequently discharged from hospital before their recovery is completed, because there is an assumption their stay would otherwise be prolonged as a result of their advancing years.

Prejudicial attitudes towards older people as a burden or “demographic time bomb” are not being challenged, because this has become socially acceptable. Such careless talk breeds a contempt that detracts from our overall quality of life. People need to be aware of the dangers, because those threaten to undermine our social values.