practical living
I’m not ageist, but...
Examining unacknowledged biases against the elderly.
By Dallas Bastian
I
n support of the recent International Human Rights Day, Benetas
chief executive Sandra Hills asked Australians to unpack their
preconceptions of older generations and to challenge the
stereotypes that fuel ageism.
And according to a 2018 study by University of Melbourne
researchers, ageism is more common than most people realise.
The study found that while age discrimination exists in society, few
Australians are resolutely ageist in their views.
“They don’t have consistently negative attitudes about how older
people are or how they should be,” said lead researchers Josh Healy
and Ruth Williams. Still, ageist thoughts sneak through, they added,
and that’s an urgent social and economic issue.
So, while Australians may not be resolutely ageist, that doesn’t
mean they’re free from ageist thoughts or attitudes – or critique,
should their choice of words come with an ageist undercurrent, as
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg learned recently.
Frydenberg came under fire from National Seniors Australia for
calling the ageing population an “economic time bomb”.
National Seniors chief advocate Ian Henschke said the treasurer
could be unintentionally engaging in ageism by implying the older
generation was a burden.
He likened the treasurer’s ‘time bomb’ comments to warnings
about an ageing ‘tsunami’, which were pervasive in the national
discourse about ageing half a decade ago, and which advocates
attempted to stamp out with some success.
In an interview with Aged Care Insite, University of South Australia
linguist Jonathan Crichton issued a reminder that the language we
use affects the way society treats certain people.
Crichton said language has failed to keep up with a society in
which ageing has changed.
“The role of people over a certain age is changing rapidly, so
essentially, on about five or six fronts – social, economic, linguistic,
health, longevity – we’re playing catch-up simultaneously,” he said.
“I think language is coming to light as being important in
this because it’s important across all the other areas. You can’t
articulate policy without language. You can’t create products and
create markets without language. You can’t brand or provide care
without language.”
In its April 2018 Bulletin, the World Health Organization said
language and media, including films, television, music and social
media, most often echo and reinforce stereotypes about negative
aspects of ageing because “ageist depictions tend to be the norm”.
22 agedcareinsite.com.au
In that issue, the group pushed for a global campaign to combat
ageism and said collective, concerted and coordinated action by
a diverse range of public and private sector actors was needed to
see change.
One such actor working to unwind ageism in Australia is EveryAGE
Counts, which started work late that same year.
The coalition, spearheaded by the Benevolent Society and made
up of more than 20 high-profile organisations and individuals, kicked
off their efforts with a quiz called ‘Are you ageist?’ and the release of
a pledge to end ageism and discrimination.
And in August, Uniting Aged Care and the Benevolent Society
created a photo exhibition featuring residents from Uniting’s Edina,
Illowra and Ronald Coleman Lodge facilities. The pictures showed
residents living well and detailed their thoughts on ageing.
The organisers asked attendees to take the pledge against ageism.
One such signatory was local MP Dave Sharma. At the event, he said
that ageism needed to be tackled urgently.
“I really do believe this is one of the next frontiers of civil rights in
Australia,” he said.
But Henschke was not overly optimistic about that next frontier,
at least not in the short term. When asked by Aged Care Insite how
Australia can combat ageism, he said: “I am not sure that Australians
are prepared to confront the fact that they are ageist, because it is
only when you reach a certain age that you realise that it is actually
there and it is happening.
“It happens when people lose their jobs … and then you hear of
people having to apply not dozens of times but hundreds of times.
I spoke to a man who told me that he knows of someone who has
applied for 300 jobs since they lost their job at 59.”
The workplace is one “obvious site in which intergenerational
tensions play out”, according to the University of Melbourne
researchers.
“The unprecedented presence of up to five different generations in
the same workplaces creates massive positive potential, if managed
well, but also risks considerable discord if we fail to recognise and
put an end to age biases,” study leads Healy and Williams said.
“We need our workplace managers to first confront their own
attitudes and check that these don’t reinforce ageist biases.”
Hills said Australia needs a strong national campaign to show the
real face of older members of the community.
“If we’re really going to commit to tackling discrimination in
Australia, we’re going to have to start valuing older people on an
individual level and valuing their contributions to our community.
“It’s time that we work to shed existing perceptions and share
the very real experiences of older people from diverse cultures
and backgrounds, from various gender identities and sexual
orientations. All of whom come with their own individual passions
and expressions of service,” she said.
It’s a move backed by EveryAGE Counts co-chair Robert Tickner,
who has repeatedly called for a national agenda for older Australians.
“We would like to see governments at all levels help drive a
public conversation about ageing and ageism, including support
for a broad, sustained public awareness and education campaign,”
Tickner said.
Australia is on the brink of sweeping systematic change in how
it cares for older Australians, Hills said, and “with that comes an
important opportunity, and in fact a responsibility, to tackle the
ageism that older generations face”.
And, if Australians are going to deal with the problem, then, as
Henschke says, “you first have to recognise you have one”. ■