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The season for stereotyping - again
It’s the time of year when I get that old familiar sense of
outrage, directed towards columnists who provide lists of who to
give what for Christmas. There’s always the same cast when it comes
to older people: Aunts Edith and Ethel (those mythical figures from
Victorian times), plus some senile old grannies who’ve been knitting
away all year to provide yet another unwearable woolly.
No, I don’t have any aunts called Edith or Ethel either, and
since I am a grannie and I know lots of other grannies, I can say
from experience that while many of us don’t knit, when we do the
result is often something fashion-conscious and highly desirable.
It’s the season for stereotyping again (though it actually
goes on all year round). ‘Stereotypes of older people as
problematically sick and vulnerable, heroically young and active or
just comically grumpy like TV’s Victor Meldrew are major barriers
preventing their real needs from being heard or acted upon.’ That’s
a quote from a recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, so
it’s not just me who’s cross.
My pet hate is the oldies-as-delinquents report. ‘”Grandpa
gang” held in Vienna’ was the recent newspaper headline about a
group of cocaine traffickers with an age range of 55 – 70, from whom
the police seized drugs worth at least £140,000. ‘Little old ladies
in drunken orgy’ is another version of the same thing.
I admit that I have been as guilty as anyone of finding elderly
people who drink or have sex or commit crimes as somehow
ludicrous, or at least worthy of a laugh. But it is gradually
occurring to me that when do we laugh at aberrant behaviour in older
people, the joke is ultimately on us. It belittles us and denies our
ability to make choices, suggesting that when we get to a certain
age we are mere children, not responsible for our behaviour.
And from there it’s an easy step to further assumptions.
Professional attitudes that treat old age as if it were an illness
for which there is no cure are all too common, and certainly no
laughing matter. Many policies are still based on seeing older
people as a burden, a problem to be solved or as ‘patients’ whose
rights are restricted by their need to accept health or social care
services and be grateful about it. As the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
says: service planners and providers please do better in future.
Their report is based on a four-year research programme
overseen by a steering group of older people. For once, someone is
actually listening to the authentic voice. The central message is
that older people must be involved in planning policies and services
that affect them in order to make an enduring contribution to
improving the quality of life in old age.
One of the messages that rings bells is the ‘successful ageing’
trap. We’re into inappropriate comparisons with this one. Why
should we be expected to compete with younger people in energy
levels, zest, curiosity, endeavour or physically demanding
activities? ‘Older people are cast either in passive, submissive
roles or they present aspirational messages, a bit like those in
teen or beauty magazines, which just don’t correspond with ordinary
people’s lives’, says the report.
Most of us in later life are aware of the limitations of growing
older. Some of us resist, put up a good fight, others adjust
gracefully, and some do just give in to full resignation. This
probably reflects what we have been doing most of our lives.
Character doesn’t change all that much.
The thing we all share in later life is precious experience,
a whole lifetime of it to draw upon. But instead of being valued for
this, we are ignored. Rarely do we hear about ageing from the people
who experience it. Rarely is our accrued wisdom tapped, our advice
sought. The reality of getting older is a constant negotiation
between losses and gains.
I’ll end with the quote from Stan Davison from Barnet Older
People’s Forum, who chaired the JRF Older People’s Steering
Group: ‘In age, being healthy is about being able to enjoy yourself,
keep mentally active, do things which interest you and meet friends
The real supports and services that are valued are those that help
negotiate ordinary things in life: relationships, learning,
transport, housing, contact and feeling comfortable and secure.’
Have a very good Christmas!
Older people shaping policy and practice by the Older People’s
Steering Group is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and
available from YPS, 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York YO31 7ZQ
(01904 430033), price £14.95 plus £2.00 p&p. It is also available as
a free download from
www.jrf.org.uk .
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Talkback is a
regular feature in laterlife.com run by
journalist and author Helen Franks. 
