practical living
Age appropriate
It ’ s time to reintegrate older Aussies and reframe what they mean to us .
By Conor Burke
Older Australians have been at the
forefront of every conversation associated with the pandemic , from who is the most vulnerable to who ’ ll get the vaccine first and even around the merits of shutting down the economy to protect them .
As the nation opens up and restrictions ease , we must now consider the effect this stressful year of fear and isolation has had on some older people . And , according to Dr Belinda Cash , a senior lecturer at Charles Sturt University , as we reintegrate older Aussies back into society in a post- COVID world , we have to rethink the way in which we view them .
Cash believes that the impact of public health messaging and at times the ageist reporting of COVID-19 in the media will have a big impact on the mental and physical health of the elderly this year .
“ Every day we would hear an update saying X number of people have contracted COVID , X number of people have died , but all those people who died , this number were in aged care . And this somehow made it more tolerable to the general public ,” she says .
“ I can understand why they were doing it ; to try and keep public anxiety at bay but I don ’ t think it helped older adults .”
“ This isn ’ t about
a minority group , this is about all of us .
The health advice stating that vulnerable people should avoid social contact and shield in the home means that particular attention will need to be paid to the mental health of the older population going forward .
“ I think now is when we need to start really moving towards talking to individuals because not all older adults will have the same level of risk , just like not all people of different age groups will have the same levels of risk ,” Cash says .
“ We need to stop this idea of saying all older adults are at risk . I think that that longer term impact on mental health and wellbeing will start to really shine through if we don ’ t start getting people safely participating again .”
Checking in with a simple conversation , be that a GP or family member , can be helpful , especially for people in aged care homes who have been impacted in a different way to the wider population .
The pandemic has exacerbated problems that already existed for people in aged care ; loneliness has long been talked about as a significant barrier to good health in old age . And as the wider population has found ways to stay in touch , work and communicate , now is the time to do the same for aged care .
“ A lot of the messaging was around finding other ways to get connected , and we know in modern society that most of that happens through technology . We have seen so much of our life turn into that online space ,” Cash says .
“ But that ’ s not the case necessarily for people who don ’ t have access to devices or access to the internet , and even access to digital literacy .”
Low digital literacy is also a problem to be addressed , according to Cash , as well as the financial barriers to owning technology .
“ I would love to see all facilities have much better access to technology because that will allow and encourage all the adults to stay connected . Particularly in modern society where grandparents , greatgrandparents in aged care haven ’ t seen their children , haven ’ t seen their grandchildren , haven ’ t been able to get out and about .” Many of the issues the elderly have faced during the pandemic can be traced back to ageism , says Cash , and facing up to that will be a positive step forward post-COVID .
“ Unlike how we think about sexism or racism , we often find and see so many people challenging the other isms in terms of the way that they affect different subgroups of the population , yet ageism is still so pervasive .
“ It ’ s something that everybody is likely to encounter if they live long enough . This isn ’ t about a minority group , this is about all of us in the future .”
Changing our mindset and our language about age is a good start , says Cash . Throwing away old habits , such as flippantly claiming old age if we forget something or pick up an injury , will help reframe how we think about age , as will learning to call out ageism if we see it , much like we would expect to call out sexism , racism or any other denigration of minorities .
“ I do think that one of the positive things is that something positive can come out of COVID – it highlighted the ugliness of ageism . It really highlighted that these kinds of dismissive attitudes of older adults and of ageing really came to the surface in an overt way . And I think a lot of people were quite shocked by that .” ■
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