During her last years my mother had been going through a serious emotional re-evaluation of her life. She felt pain over what she had and had not done. She saw her life only in dark hues, somewhat in the same way clients in the early stages of psychotherapy see their lives. Perhaps, if my mother had had those two more years she would have gotten to the other side of her pain, and like the end stage therapy client found new meaning in her life. We discovered our mother’s treatment was inappropriate for a woman her age and if she had been given no treatment she could have lived in health for a few more years.
Robert N. Butler, founding director of the National Institute on Aging who coined the term ageism thirty years ago, has seen no change in ageist attitudes in the past thirty years. One reason for this may be the vicious cycle discussed above. Does this mean we are permanently stuck with ageism? As a psychologist I teach undergraduates to be human service workers. I often ask them, “Do you have to experience the same problems as your clients in order to understand them?” They agree that it would be impossible to experience every problem a client might have. We understand our clients through the use of our imagination which allows us to put ourselves in another’s place. Physicians need to have their imaginations expanded when they are at their most pliable—in medical school.
Further, despite the slogan “Never trust anyone over 30” the baby boomers will soon be the elderly patients. And we are a large, noisy group, well-rehearsed in protest. I doubt we will allow the medical profession to continue in its ageist attitudes.
References:
Turcotte, L. (2003). Ageism in the American healthcare system. Christomathy:Annual review of undergraduate research at the College of Charleston, 2, 284-298.
Pope, E. (2003, November) Second-class care:Discrimination against older patients still permeates nation’s health care system. AARP Bulletin, Retrieved September 1, 2007 from www.aarp.org/yourhealth/a2003-10-30-2ndclass_care.html?print=yes
CBS News (2003, May 20). Ageism is pervasion in health care. Healthwatch, Retrieved September1,2007from
http:www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/20/health/main554845.shtml.
Strein, J.E. (2003, May, 19). Age discrimination in the health care system (oral testimony). Special Commission on Aging, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, Retrieved September 1, 2007 from www.aagpa.org/advocacy/testimony.asp?viewfull=16.
