The continuing imposition of ‘austerity measures’ yet again this week, with even more taxes to empty our coffers through new levies and cutbacks, is enough to make a body feel old. Imagine, though, if we all really were old right now in this modern youth-obsessed society of ours — what would it be like having to worry about not only funding our remaining years through a dwindling pension, but also the looming handicap of health issues?
Happily the stereotype of older people needing more intensive healthcare than younger people is actually all a myth — given that just five per cent of older people need long-term health care in this country. A panel of experts discussing the issue at an open seminar in Galway this week, entitled ‘The ignored demographic - older people in Ireland’, also concluded that positive ageing is hugely contingent upon attitudes of the young — and indeed the middle-aged — towards older people. This is because it is often adult children who are ageist, treating elderly parents as if they no longer have a mind to make decisions of their own, when they are perfectly able to voice their own opinions.
Furthermore, in order to redress ongoing negative attitudes towards ageing older people need to be much more visible, according to Irish Times assistant editor Fintan O’Toole, who chaired the seminar and reported that Irish society has huge lessons to learn from other countries in this regard. Referring to a recent six-month stint spent in China, Mr O’Toole recalled that what had struck him most shockingly was how older people were visible “everywhere you went and treated with enormous respect”.
“Older people are valued for being full of wisdom and experience, whereas in Ireland they are seen as a burden to society that should be kept away from the productive side of life as much as possible,” he said.
Chief executive of Age Action Robin Webster developed the theme, noting that while it may be recognised that older people do contribute to society, older people themselves are now in the habit of devaluing their own contribution by living up to the negative images and stereotyping foisted upon them. Even the Minister for Older People, Áine Brady TD, who criticised some instances of doctors telling patients they should “expect” to suffer certain ailments as they age, commented that when she too is introduced at gatherings, people remark on how young she is. “They expect me to be old — really old — older than I am at least,” she revealed.
Nonetheless, health issues such as the loss of mental sharpness were addressed by the panel which noted that one in five of us is likely to suffer from either dementia or Alzheimer’s after the age of 65, with 40,000 currently suffering with these diseases. To meet this challenge it is recommended that a ‘life-cycle’ approach be applied universally to avoid rigidities developing in the care treatment system, given that such diseases affect all members of a family at all ages in different ways.
Meanwhile, for those who may be worrying about their own mental fate as they age, consultant in geriatric medicine at Merlin Park Hospital, Dr Shaun O’Keeffe, tendered some words of comfort. “You are entitled to a bit of slippage as you age such as occasional memory loss, forgetting where you put things, or what someone just said, so don’t be too hard on yourself when it happens.” To all our valuable older citizens out there therefore, please feel free to allow yourself some senior moments and, most of all, be sure not to let us forget you!
Joan Geraghty
Acting Editor [email protected]
