NEW YEAR WISHES

Prof Des O'Neill , department of medical gerontology, Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin.

Prof Des O'Neill, department of medical gerontology, Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin.

A remarkable exhibition, currently in the Draíocht Arts Centre in Blanchardstown, of works by Henri Matisse after the age of 80 is a potent metaphor for the vitality, ingenuity and fresh insights that the wisdom and skills of later life bring to society.

Unfortunately, it is rare that the public discourse about older people reflects their ongoing enormous contribution to society.

Words matter. We are acutely aware that negative descriptors based on race or ethnic status are part and parcel of social exclusion.

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Sadly, all too often we still hear of older people (us as we age), referred to as "elderly", an adjective that otherwise is only used in a pejorative sense and which helps to portray older people as passive and dependent.

Many Government departments and public figures, reports on older people (such as the Mercer and O'Shea reports on long- term care) as well as the media, continue to refer to older people as "the elderly".

The United Nations and older people themselves have asked for many years that we use the term "older people" and much of our difficulties with policies for older people stems from a failure to identify ourselves as future older people.

If in 2007 we can begin to describe older people in a way that respects their complexity, contribution and civic engagement, we will improve our chances for developing services that anticipate and meet their needs - and our own future needs.

In conversation with Sylvia Thompson