From Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges ...

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Ageism and Attitudes toOlder People in the Republicof Ireland: Report of ARKSurvey, 2003Síle O’Connor, Professor of Social Policy, School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster andLizanne Dowds, Director, ARKIntroductionIn 2003, parallel surveys on attitudes to older people were carried out in Ireland north and south.The Northern Ireland survey was carried out as part of the Northern Ireland Life and Times annualsurvey; the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) conducted the parallel stand-alone surveyin the Republic on behalf of the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK). 316These surveys were a first attempt to address this topic via large-scale quantitative surveys withrepresentative samples of adults from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. They reflect theincreasing importance of ageing as a field of enquiry and policy concern in Ireland (The EqualityAuthority, 2002; National Economic and Social Forum [NESF], 2003; Russell and Fahey, 2004), the EU(Commission of the European Union, 2002) and further afield. This is reflected in the work of othercross-national organisations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) and the United Nations (OECD, 2003, 2004; Sidorenko and Walker, 2004; Walker, 2004).The increasing importance of ageing mostly results from concern with demographic change. Ofparticular concern is the increasing percentage of older people in the population and the associatedissue of the funding of pensions. The debate is also being influenced by labour market issues whichis reflected in the emphasis on increasing the employment rate of people aged 55-64 years (vonNordheim, 2004; OECD, 2004). 4 Policy measures directed to increase the participation of olderpeople in the labour market stem partly from the pension funding issue; they also reflect an attemptto increase economic competitiveness. A more recent, but particularly important, contribution to theincrease in interest in ageing as a field of inquiry is the influence of the equality/human rightsagenda (The Equality Authority, 2002).This paper reports the results from the Republic of Ireland survey based on interviews with anationally representative sample of the population aged 18 years and over. 5 It is divided into three3 Atlantic Philanthropies funded both surveys. The NCAOP made a significant contribution to the funding of the Republic ofIreland Survey. ARK acknowledges this support.4 The OECD report on ageing and employment policies in the UK is one of eight country reports published to date in whatwill be a 21 country thematic review, including the Republic of Ireland.5 This yielded 1,880 usable questionnaires reflecting a response rate of 67 per cent or 75 per cent when non-contactsare excluded. The data was re-weighted or statistically adjusted prior to the analysis to take into account differentialresponse/non-response levels among subgroups of the population.Conference Proceedings
sections and a concluding discussion. The first section focuses on perceptions of the treatment ofolder people including their treatment by healthcare and financial services. The second is concernedwith employment and retirement issues, while the third outlines general attitudes towards olderpeople including views and preferences relating to particular scenarios.The Treatment of Older People‘Older people’ were identified for survey respondents as ‘people in their fifties and over’. Respondentswere then asked whether they thought older people were treated better, worse or about the same asthe general population because of their age and whether they thought that they themselves weretreated with more or less respect as they became older. As Table 1 below shows, over a third ofrespondents expressed the view that older people were treated worse than the general populationbecause of their age. Only 21 per cent of those aged seventy years and over expressed this viewcompared to almost 40 per cent of those aged under fifty. This difference may be due to higherexpectations on the part of the younger population or their relative ignorance of the experience ofpeople aged seventy years and over.Table 1: Perceptions of treatment of older people relative to the general population18-29 30-49 50-59 60-69 70+ Allyears years years years yearsTreated better 13% 15% 22% 27% 39% 19%17Treated worse 37% 39% 37% 34% 21% 36%Treated the same 46% 40% 40% 37% 38% 41%Don’t know 4% 5% 6% 1% 3% 4%The vast majority of respondents reported experiencing the same level of respect or more as theygot older, including those aged seventy years and over of whom 42 per cent felt they receivedgreater respect as they got older (Table 2). Yet a significant minority, 20 per cent overall and 22 percent of those aged seventy years and over, experienced less respect as they got older.From Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges
Page 1 and 2: From Ageism to Age Equality:Address
Page 5 and 6: Introduction1
Page 7 and 8: Presentations in the Final Session
Page 9: membership of the Traveller communi
Page 12 and 13: Opening Address (1)Karen Erwin, Cha
Page 14 and 15: Opening Address (2)Sylvia Meehan, B
Page 16 and 17: What is Ageism?Loretta Crawley,Scho
Page 18 and 19: Marginalisation is very often the r
Page 22 and 23: Table 2: Perceptions of how one is
Page 24 and 25: Fear of crime was identified by ove
Page 26 and 27: Table 7: Forms of less favourable t
Page 28 and 29: Just 4 per cent of respondents aged
Page 30 and 31: Table 14: Personal preferences for
Page 32 and 33: Attitudes Towards Older PeopleTable
Page 34 and 35: Table 18: Responses to Scenario Two
Page 36 and 37: Overall, the data suggests a need a
Page 38 and 39: Postal Survey of AttitudesWe conduc
Page 40 and 41: administration and management perso
Page 42 and 43: Screening and Preventative Services
Page 44 and 45: ConclusionsThe broad aim of health
Page 46 and 47: 42Conference Proceedings
Page 48 and 49: Rooting Out AgeDiscrimination in th
Page 50 and 51: Training EventsTraining events on a
Page 52 and 53: Guide to Auditing Age Discriminatio
Page 54 and 55: Effective Involvement of Older Peop
Page 56 and 57: Combating Age Discrimination 9Liste
Page 58 and 59: 54Conference Proceedings
Page 60 and 61: The Status of Age Equality andNon-D
Page 62 and 63: equired to have adopted the two Dir
Page 64 and 65: necessary to promote awareness of i
Page 66 and 67: Implementing Equality forOlder Peop
Page 68 and 69: Provision of Goods, Services, Educa
Page 70 and 71:
Such an exercise, often quite simpl
Page 72 and 73:
developed as an integral part of eq
Page 74 and 75:
Older people who internalise pejora
Page 76 and 77:
When considering the implementation
Page 78 and 79:
Richard BakerRichard chairs the ant
Page 80 and 81:
Síle O’ConnorSíle O’Connor ha
Page 82 and 83:
NCAOPThe National Council on Ageing
Page 84:
The Equality AuthorityThe Equality
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