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Discrimination of the elderly free essays
The ethical implications of age discrimination
The ethical implications of age discrimination
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Attitudes are the foundation of quality of care for older adults. Among health care professionals, discrimination and stereotypical behaviors are very prevalent, even though more often than not these individuals do not realize their actions are ageist. “Ageism hinders people from seeing the potential of aging, anticipation their own aging, and being responsive to the needs of older people” (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). Attitudes are directly correlated with how individuals age and whether individuals stay health and live longer (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). The care that older adults receive from healthcare professionals is directly influenced by that provider’s attitude about growing older. All too often, health care providers rely on a patient’s chronological age rather than their functional age when determining their needs and what interventions are prescribed. Another issue lies in providers viewing the complaints of older patients as a part of “normal aging”, therefore potentially missing life-threatening problems that may have been easily resolved. “Age is only appropriate in health treatment as a secondary factor in making medical decisions, and it should not be used as a stand-alone factor” (Nolan, 2011, p. 334).
Physicians
The expected hierarchy among health care providers is led by physicians. The doctor has long been the “expert” on anything to do with the human body, whether it is disease or injury. The evolution of technology brought the World Wide Web readily to every consumer’s doorstep resulting in a slight shift of this everlasting faith. Older adults continue to retain some of this confidence in their physicians due to their tendency not to use the internet and search for their own ...
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...th professionals, were significantly more cynical toward and distrustful of older adults” (p. 63). The findings in Meisner’s (2012) conveyed that physicians demonstrated attitudes about older patients including feelings of these individuals being “disengaged and unproductive” while assuming that these characteristics applied to all of the older patients regardless of each person’s actual abilities (p. 63). Combing all older adults into one category defined by disability and dysfunction is detrimental to the well-being of each patient. Chronological age is not the determining factor relative to treatment; functional age is a better testament to expected outcomes for a patient. It is imperative that physicians understand what is “normal aging” rather than searching for pathologies based on symptoms that are just part of this aging process. According to Meisner
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
The thought of aging is not void of hesitance given it produces questions deprived of answers in the absence of a crystal ball. Subsequently, aging parallels the unknown; thus, faced with uncertainty adopting a positive perspective remains elusive. Although, it’s preferred to view aging optimistically one cannot escape its negative connotations. Will I be an active agent or isolated burden remains a noteworthy unknown that enervates my optimism. Another consideration leading to my vacillating view on aging is, not knowing to what degree personal competencies and capacities will carry forward, thereby affording autonomy in the elder years. However, as research suggest, the aging process transforms healthy adults into frail ones; thus, dashing one’s hope that such traits will endure (Friis, 2010). Incidentally, at age 48, these lingering questions will soon be answered. In the interim, there is an inherent responsibility to prepare physically, psychologically, and financially for entry into the aging population. Ideally, the goal is to
Today’s society highly values attractiveness, energy, and independence. Therefore, old age tends to be devalued in many ways based on stereotypes portrayed by the media and personal biases. Regardless, aging is a natural process that happens to everyone in society. With that said, this becomes a challenge for young nurses. What does one think of when hearing of a 87 year old patient? Does one automatically think the patient will be confused, agitated, very frail, very ill, or dependent? Many do. This is where nurses need to become more aware and change their views. Working in a hospital myself, I tend to assume the same. I also hear a lot of people who are surprised when they discover their patient
The term “ageism” is not easily understood by most of the population because of its acceptance as normal behavior due to the ingrained attitudes that most people develop in their youth, but health care workers must fully embrace the term within their profession in order to avoid becoming a contributor to the historical prevalence of prejudices and discrimination. The term ageism is defined by Klein and Liu (2010) as “the discrimination of individuals based solely on age” (p. 334). “Ageism is a social construct that is internalized in the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals” (Klein & Liu, 2010, p. 334). Robert Butler, a well-known gerontologist, coined the term “ageism” citing that the discrimination and prejudice associated with this term is often based on the lack of a person’s experience with older people (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). Ferrini and Ferrini (2013) refer to the strong influence that cultural beliefs and attitudes as well as a person’s current age influence the perception of aging (p. 6). Everywhere within society there are influences that encourage ageist attitudes such as media conveyances through movies, books, television, greeting cards, magazines and the Internet (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). These negative connotations related to growing older begin to influence all people at a very young age and therefore impact their attitudes as they make career decisions. This has directly impacted the number of health care providers who specialize in geriatrics as well as the attitudes of those who do provide services for older adults. These false perceptions and negative attitudes are currently impacting the q...
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
Middle-age adults experience Ageism on a regular basis. Counselors may encounter many cases where middle-age adults have experienced Ageism (discrimination). (Wong 2015). Younger counselors may need to explore their own bias attitudes towards working with middle-aged adults to better prepare themselves for working with middle-aged clients who have experienced Ageism. It is imperative that counselors be able to identify how Ageism can affect the individual emotionally and socially. By doing this, they serve as an advocate for middle-aged adults who experience Ageism. Due to the depth of the changes that mature-aged individuals, (job seekers), experience, they require more time with caseworkers to overcome certain barriers to employment. Training implications should be put in place to help diversify the mature-aged adult’s skills. This would expand the individual qualifications. As a result, making job-searching easier for them. Also, this approach can help alleviate some of the stereotypes and bias attitudes that people have toward the mature-aged group. As stated by Boswell 2012, Prior studies have linked poor knowledge of aging to negative attitudes and emotions about Aging. Researchers impose that there should be more education about Aging. Increasing knowledge on Ageism may result in the creation of successful intervention programs. It can also increase the younger generation
As the years pass and we began to age we all notice a change and this change that comes is not the apparent physical change but rather the attitudes and personification people have as we enter our old age. It seems as though, as we begin to age we notice that a sense of respect begins to build from the younger generation. According to the book “social perspectives on aging, “ it states that ‘today most social gerontologists prefer activity theory, which assumes that older people benefit both themselves and their society if they remain active and try to continue to perform the roles they had before they aged.” In other words the elderly are benefiting from what they built on their own over their lifetime and they are also benefiting from society
It is not sufficient to delegate elderly care to family practitioners. Though most family medicine programs address patients with chronic illness, the curriculum is not age specific. Individuals over the age of 75 report an average of three chronic health conditions and use more than 4.5 prescription drugs at any given time (Kovner, Meezey, & Harrington, 2002). These conflating comorbidities require a diverse range of skills. Trained geriatricians are adept at treating these conditions while bearing in mind the social, psychological, and biological changes that are associated with aging.
Kick, Ella. "Overview: Health Care and the Aging Population: What Are Today's Challenges?" The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. N.p., n.d. Web.
(2007, November 7). Nearing Age 50 or Retirement? Watch Out for Age Discrimination. Ascribe Newswire: Health, p. 3. Retrieved from Health Source - Consumer Edition database
According to DeBrew, author of “Can being ageist harm your older adult patients?” stereotypes and discrimination are evident in various aspects of patient care. “Ageism [is] defined as stereotyping or discrimination aimed at older adults and a lack of knowledge about normal changes of aging and presentation of illness in older adults (. . .)” (DeBrew, 2015). DeBrew (2015) states, “research findings suggest that ageism is common in healthcare” (DeBrew, 2015). Ageism is not only an issue in the healthcare setting, but also among older adults as well as their families. When ageism is present in the healthcare setting it poses
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Very Late Adulthood: Ageism. America's older population is growing at an alarming rate. Statistical evidence indicates growth amongst the very late adult age group. For instance, the CB (2011) found that, between 1960 and 1994, the population group 85 and older had risen by 274 percent in contrast to the general elderly population that rose to 100 percent. The upsurge of the elderly population could potentially escalate occurrences of ageism and abuse within the cohort.
When you consider ageism, you think about people being labeled as other 's sees fit. It 's just another term to judge or deny people of their humanity. When you think about people in their late adulthood what comes to mind? Some may think about gray hair, saggy skin, dentures, and a wheelchair. So my question is why? According to (Palmore, 2005, p. 90) “Ageism is a social disease, much like racism and sexism” in that it considers people as part of a category and not as individuals, creating “needless fear, waste, illness, and misery.” The more people grow and develop, they will learn that aging must go on.
While an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (1998) blamed this "reversion to irrational approaches" on "disillusionment with the often hurried and impersonal care delivered by conventional physicians", it is also viewed as the economic influence of the aging baby-boomers. As they have become older, this generation has become more health conscious and increasingly dissatisfied with conventional medicine in their attempts to diminish the adverse effects of aging (Brenneman 1999).