In This Story
Dean Melissa Perry speaks with Dr. Emily Ihara, chair of the Department of Social Work, about ageism, how it affects healthcare, how intergenerational mentor programs can help, and small changes you can make to make a big difference. Watch the video or read the synopsis.
The estimates are that by 2040, 20% of all Americans will be 65 or older. That's a big number that has a huge impact from a population and a public health standpoint. Tell me more about ageism. What is it and why does it matter?
Ageism involves stereotypes, prejudice, or discrimination based on age. And it involves all sectors of our society. It's pervasive in our everyday life, and it happens across the globe. So as early as four years old, children learn their own cultures' stereotypes about age. And as they grow older, they internalize those ideas or those notions, and it shapes the way they view aging and view older people.
I understand that ageism can show up in a lot of different ways, for example, in the health care setting. How does it show up? How is it manifest? Why is it important?
Ageism in health care can be a life-and-death situation. It shapes the way patients are treated. It may mean underdiagnosing or incorrect diagnoses, it could lead to poor treatment or lack of treatment. And many of those notions of what people are saying, as some older people may not be believed that they're in pain or something like that. And so it can have really critical repercussions for their outcomes and their ability to lead healthy lives.
You have been studying these issues for a long time, and I know you have a big paper that came out recently about intergenerational mentoring. Tell us more about it.
The title of our paper is called “Don't Treat Us Like Fragile Babies.” And that was a quote from one of our participants. It just epitomizes they how they experienced the health care system. Oftentimes, you know, older people are infantilized and they're treated like children or they're not, again, not valued for what they're saying.
And in that in this regard, the analysis that we did was examining their perspectives of the health care system. So senior mentoring programs have been around since 2000. And initially, you know, the goal is to part A to match medical students, first-year medical students with community dwelling, older adults. And in this program, they have interactions with each other.
Some research shows that ageism is actually best addressed through education and intergenerational contact. So in in this type of a program, they get to learn about each other. There are mutual benefits for both parties. And in this particular study, we found the older mentors really expressed their desire to give back to the next generation to help guide future medical professionals to help them understand what their experiences have been in doctor's offices as patients, as older people.
Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about ageism?
Taking it back to National Social Work Month, one of the core values of social work is recognizing the inherent dignity and worth of a person. I think that one thing that we can do as a society is to change our language.
As an example, the use of the word “elderly” often brings to mind negative stereotypes, such as someone who is frail, dependent, or helpless. What I often tell my students is to drop the “l y” from elderly and use the word “elder” instead. Elder is often used in many cultures as a form of respect, and it disassociate that negative stereotype of elderly.
So there's one word is “elder” instead of “elderly.” And then another word would be to add the “e r” to “old,” so we're referring to people as “older” rather than “old.” It really helps to change our framing and how we think about the aging process since we are aging and all of us are aging every day. It's important to broaden our understanding of what aging means and to include all of the positive notions of how we age.