Will ageism ever be eliminated? The latest Safefood ad about the 4Cs of food hygiene – chill, cook, clean, [avoid] cross-contamination – advises older people to be especially vigilant about food preparation and storage. Apparently anyone over the age of 65 is more at risk of food poisoning.
Although age can be a factor in fighting infections and a lifetime of “stressors” on the body influences the immune system, there is no evidence that 65 is the magic number when health falls apart. Unlike food, humans do not have a “best before” or “use by” date and the Safefood ad is just another example of blatant ageism.
People of any age can be at risk of infection depending on general health, stress, diet, physical activity levels, educational attainment, housing conditions and the overall environment.
Ageism is widespread in Ireland and is becoming more prevalent. The Positive Ageing 2016: National Indicators Report shows that in 2014, the latest year for which statistics are available, a total of 42 per cent of people aged between 50 and 64 had experienced ageism in the past two years, up from slightly more than a third in 2004 and 2010.
A consistently higher percentage of people (52 per cent) aged 65 and over felt discriminated against because of their age. The most likely places where people experience ageism include workplaces, shops, pubs, restaurants and banks.
Ageism is also a significant social stressor that harms physical and mental health. “Evidence suggests that when older people experience age-related discrimination they assimilate the negative age-related views which increase the likelihood that they feel older and less capable.”
Long-term care
The overwhelming majority of older people want to live out their lives in their own homes, and although Government policy aspires to facilitate this, the reality is somewhat different. Ageism is responsible for the fact that so many older people end up in long-term residential care. Why bother going through the palaver of providing community supports when they will end up in long-term care anyway?
The HSE National Service Plan 2017: Building a Better Health Service shows that more new services will be provided through the Nursing Home Support Scheme (496 extra persons will be funded in long-stay residential care) than homecare packages (300 extra persons will be provided with packages). The number of people in receipt of home-help hours will remain the same as in 2016.
“Any suggestion that there has been a cut in home-help hours or homecare packages is absolutely not the case,” said Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Helen McEntee. That may be correct but there has been very little increase either, and long-term residential care still seems to be the preferred option.
Social workers who provide services for older people estimate that more than half of nursing-home residents could be at home if the appropriate supports were available in sufficient quantities.
Home services
A recent report called
Meeting Older People’s Preference for Care: Policy but What about the Practice?
shows that whether or not home services are available depends on local policy.
“It is evident that older people’s preference for receiving care and support in their home and community is not being realised,” the report says.
Risk regularly influences the decisions of professionals and family members. Ageist attitudes mean the rights of the older person to live in a manner deemed risky by others are often ignored. Pressure is brought to bear to move them into long-term care where they would be “safer”.
Even when older people get home supports these are often insufficient. The report gives examples of typical homecare packages. For example, “Joe” receives 5½ hours home help a week, of which six minutes are allocated on five days to getting him out of bed, 15 minutes to help with showering and six minutes to get him back to bed at 7pm in the evening. This is hardly enough to keep him out of long-term residential care.
The Positive Ageing report recommends combating ageism by “encouraging the media and other opinion-making actors to give an age-balanced image of society”.
Safefood is an opinion-making actor and the organisation should take out all references to age in its ads. Everyone needs to be vigilant about food hygiene including older people. And we need to develop a life-course approach to ageing to ensure that everyone gets the right services at the right time and in the right place, whatever their age.