The research paper was the first step in our zenith process. I chose to cover many topics relating to ageism, including elder depression and societal implications about the aging process.
Ageism in America
Throughout our country’s history, we have taken historic steps to fight against discrimination. Events like like the Civil Rights Movement and Title VII ensured that we become more aware of racism and religious discrimination in our country. But one group remains discriminated against, with little awareness or regard for their needs: the elderly. They make up 15% of our nation’s population, with 47.8 million people over 65. If they formed a country, that country would be more populated than Spain. And the number of them is projected to be over 98 million by 2060, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
What image pops into your head when you think of the word elderly? Your own grandparents? An old man you saw at the bus stop the other day? Chances are, it wasn’t very positive, and that is largely due to ageism. The term “ageism” was created in 1969 by a psychiatrist named Robert N. Butler, a passionate activist for elderly rights. In Andrew Achenbaum’s journal article, “A History of Ageism since 1969,” he writes, “Whether working with the Veterans Administration, serving as founding director of the National Institute on Aging, and, subsequently, as the (first U.S.) chair of geriatrics at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical School, Butler constantly sought ways to rid eldercare of ageism.” Butler predicted that age discrimination would be underrepresented and underestimated for years beyond his lifespan, claiming that “aging is the great sleeper in American life” (qtd. in Achenbaum). The accuracy of Butler’s claim is clear, with the increasing elderly population in our society and the way that discrimination against them is, more often than not, overlooked.
10,000 people turn 65 every day, the age that most developed countries define as elderly (thefiscaltimes.com). But as people begin to live longer and baby boomers reach midlife, 65 is hardly the end. The way that we view the elderly has social, economic, and medical implications in our society, and it also affects the way we view ourselves as we age. Just as we take steps to correct subconscious racist and discriminatory leanings we may have, we need to combat the societal ageism that has been ingrained in so many of us as Americans.
Before taking steps in fixing our nation’s ageism, we have to understand where it comes from. The elderly seem to be the antithesis of every standard modern Americans hold dear: physical fitness, conventional beauty, and independence. Our society is deathly afraid of getting old. It’s all around us: anti-wrinkling products line the shelves of beauty stores, a gossip magazine insults how gray or thin a male celebrity’s hair has gotten. These negative implications, although small, have large effects on our views on aging. A large social factor into the feelings towards aging in America is pop culture, and the way the media portrays old people as senile and helpless. In movies and television, an older character is commonly taken advantage of or in need of assistance. The famous 1989 commercial for an emergency help necklace, Lifecall, contained a well-known line from the elderly actress, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Instead of a conversation about the danger an older person is in if they fall while alone, the commercial was met with parodies and jokes. Furthermore, if an older person has a trait that defies these implications, like Betty White’s sharp sense of humor, it really just seems to reinforce the stereotypes. She’s a comedic novelty, the only old lady that could ever be funny.
Research has shown that our society has also given Americans a skewed view of how drastically aging will affect them. Jessica Walker, a public policy expert on age-friendly communities and geriatric mental health, created a website called Aging Watch where she writes blog posts and articles about aging. In an article entitled “Elder Stereotypes in Media & Popular Culture,” Walker writes, “One study found that 90 percent of elderly respondents indicated that the likelihood of them becoming senile was very strong. However, estimates indicate that dementia-related illnesses only affects about 10 percent of people over age 65…” . Additionally, the way that we demonize old bodies leads to insecurity and shame as people age. In J. Brooks Bouson’s book, Shame and the Aging Woman, she writes, “When people experience their physical bodies as in some way unattractive, undesirable and as a source of ‘shamed self,’ they are at risk of psychological distress and disorders.” Not only does pop culture give younger people a negative view of their elderly counterparts, it also lends a hand to self-hatred and depression in the elderly as they age.
Researchers assert that we can take steps to prepare ourselves for successful aging throughout our young lives, instead of just giving in to the idea that our bodies will inevitably fail. In “Challenges and Achievements in Caring for the Elderly,” Dr. Christopher Frank describes how people can take steps to ease their aging process before their health declines:
Given the increasing age of the population and the relatively small increase in the number of family physicians, we need to do a better job preventing frailty and common conditions of aging. This should start long before the ‘magic’ age of 65. Determinants of health factor considerably into healthy aging, and family physicians can affect these through advocacy and health promotion. Promoting healthy lifestyles in the young, the middle-aged, and even the ‘young old’ will affect aging decades later.
Once again, the evidence shows that the ageist notion that becoming elderly and inevitably losing our health is not only harmful in the way that we treat older adults but also in the way that we treat ourselves as we age. This kind of mindset prevents people from taking action earlier in life to ease the process and age in a successful way.
America’s negative feelings towards the elderly becomes even more apparent when compared with other countries’ views. In Chinese and Latino cultures, it’s not uncommon for families to live in a multigenerational home, sometimes until the death of the older family members. But as a culture where earners work more and longer, with less children, the format of leaving each family in charge of caring for their elderly just doesn’t work in America. And just as the culture of care is different in other cultures, the amount of respect that old people are met with seems to be greater as well. Chinese philosopher Confucius described aging as a “good and pleasant thing,” contrasting with the tone of disdain given by Roman philosopher Seneca, who said “Senectus morbidus est,” which translates to “Old age is a disease”. Clearly America seems to lean more towards the Roman philosophy as we seem to despise the process of aging rather than respecting it.
Ageism has woven itself into the political scope of our nation as well. In her article “Diversity in Aging America: Making Our Communities Aging Friendly,” Susan Hrostowski describes how “more and more organizations concerned with the welfare of older adults are calling for the development of ‘Aging Friendly Communities.’.. to address the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and healthy ageing in societies.” Hrostowski is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi and actively works to lead citizens to make political choices that assist the elderly. But as a society with ageism ingrained in us and our political choices, the majority of people don’t often vote for legislation that helps older people in the community. It doesn’t seem to matter to us now, but once we reach the age that these political choices affect us, it will be too late to change them.
Recently, Americans have begun to commonly defy another discriminatory stereotype about older people in the workforce. The age to retire is usually seen to be 65, but our current economic climate has begun to force citizens to work older and longer. “More than 9.2 million Americans over the age of 65 held either a full- or part-time job in August – a 64 percent increase from the 5.6 million elderly workers the U.S. maintained a decade prior” (Soergel). But instead of supporting these people, businesses and corporations often turn a blind eye to ageism in the workplace, as hiring younger people is cheaper and they’re usually able to clock more hours. As recently as December 2017, Facebook, Amazon, and other tech companies are being sued over age discrimination that comes from posting more job ads on Facebook than in traditional ways. This kind of marketing portrays the idea that older people, who may not use social media, have nothing to contribute to startups and tech companies. This means that these companies lack the perspective and experience that older employees can contribute. As the number of years Americans stay in the workforce steadily increases, it becomes increasingly evident that this issue is not one of a fleeting nature. If we don’t take a stand against ageism in the workplace now it will surely affect us towards the end of our own careers.
One problem that the elderly face is deciding whether to live in their own home or move to a care facility. American citizens often show a desire to stay in their own home rather than a care facility as they stay longer in the workforce. Again, this likely stems from the desire to stay young through independence and maintaining the living conditions they’ve had since they were young. And there are positive systems set in place for them. Medicare was created in 1965 and remains the primary health insurance program for the elderly. The different parts of this program support Americans through multiple stages of care, depending on their current condition. Additionally, other legislation, like the Affordable Care Act of 2010, ensures that hospitals and rehabs promote in-home care to prevent readmissions. Although the option of staying in one’s home may seem like the best, most comfortable option, without a regular caretaker individual seniors may suffer from feelings of isolation and desolation. In this situation, a lot of the responsibility for keeping a senior’s spirits up falls on their caretakers and nurses. A tip from the National Caregivers’ Library reads as follows: “Among the most important human needs is the desire for respect and dignity. That need doesn’t change when a person becomes ill or disabled. Indeed, it may grow even stronger.” These people depend upon the younger people in their community, especially if they don’t have family. Even if we don’t directly care for them, the actions we take on legislation and the way that we interact with them can drastically change their attitude in their later years.
Because older folks seem jolly and removed from the worries of us younger Americans, elder depression is not a well-known concept. But in reality, feeling like a burden, having bodily failures and losing one’s dignity are things that older people have to deal with on a daily basis. In What Every Senior Needs to Know about Healthcare, James J. Nora describes the gravity of the situation: “Mental health problems appear to be more prominent than those of intellectual function… Depression is the most common disorder, accounting for about half of mental illness in the elderly.” (114) The end of someone’s life can be hard for them to confront. It’s not uncommon for people to grow so desolate that they just want to die.
Changing the way that people feel in their final years may be simpler than it seems. In Depression in the Elderly, Emaad Abdel-Rahman offers possible strategies for older people and those around them to help combat feelings of depression. As senior citizens are already so medicated, adding antidepressants to the list isn’t usually the best decision. Such an effect is described by Emaad Abdel-Rahman in his book Depression in the Elderly: “Non-pharmacological therapies offer potentially safer alternative management of depression in older people. Of the psychotherapies, cognitive behaviour therapy and reminiscence and life review have the best supporting evidence for older people” (93). The “reminiscence and life review” Abdel-Rahman references could be something as simple as asking an older person about stories from their life or advice. As much as their sharing of wisdom benefits us, it will also benefit them.
A working example of the benefits of reminiscence and life review is the Legacy Project. The Legacy Project is a personal project of Karl Pillemer, Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College. In this project, he shares life lessons from older people that he describes as “the wisest Americans” through books and a website. In a 2014 blog post, “We All Want to Stay Positive: But How Should We Do It?”, he describes his findings:
The overwhelming opinion of America’s elders is that people need to make a daily, conscious decision to maintain a positive attitude. Based on their life experience, they exhort us to take charge and to assume control – not over what happens to us, which is often impossible – but over our own attitude toward happiness. (Pillemer)
What Dr. Pillemer describes is a lesson for all of us, although we have more control over what happens to us than older people. We can assist them in maintaining a positive attitude by visiting, listening to the details of their life, and making them feel like they matter. This also has potential benefits for us as a society, because just as a positive interaction with an African American person can help to expel subtle racist leanings a person may have, sitting down with a senior citizen could help the general public to understand that each one of them is more than their age.
Aging is not optional. It is something we’ll all have to come to terms with someday, or else fall victim to the depression and lack of vigor that so many researchers warn against. Socially, politically, and economically, we need to protect the elderly just as we do any other marginalized group. Although we may have negative associations with the abstract idea of getting old, we can’t use that as an excuse not to treat those around us who have reached a mature age as less than equal citizens. If we make ourselves aware of where those feelings come from and real facts about aging, we can get closer to eliminating the age bias we all carry.
Works Cited
Abdel-Rahman, Emaad. Depression in the Elderly, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2012.
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Achenbaum, Andrew W. “A History of Ageism since 1969.” Generations, vol. 39,
- 3, 2015, pp. 10-16, eLibrary, https://explore.proquest.com/document/1750054672?accountid=65500. Accessed 26 Feb. 2018.
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Aviv, Rachel. “How the Elderly Lose Their Rights.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 9
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Physician, College of Family Physicians of Canada, Nov. 2010,
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Friendly.” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 17, no. 3/4, 2010, pp. 307–313. JSTOR,
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National Caregivers Library. Respect and Dignity. Washington State Department of
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Nora, James J. “Mental And Social Health and Elder Abuse.” What Every
Senior Needs To Know about Healthcare, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 2004, pp.
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Pearson, Emma. “Business Is Booming for Senior Care Franchises.” Franchising.com,
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