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

Effective Involvement of Older PeopleThe involvement of older people in audits of age discrimination should be part of a strategy forpatient and public involvement. General principles include:think about who you want to involve and why you want to involve them, and be explicit aboutthisbe clear about whether you are involving people for their personal experiences and opinions orfor their links with a wider group of older peoplebe aware of the diversity of ‘older people’: the needs and views of a sixty year old person maybe quite different from those of a person aged 95. Race, gender, disability and area of residencemay be relevantdo not expect one person to represent the diversity of older people's viewsattend to the practicalities, such as suitable venues, transport and payment of expensesdon't look for a single method to involve all older peoplego out to older people; don't expect them always to come to you.Furthermore, involving older people should be part of an ongoing dialogue, not a one-off approach:offer background information and support to maximise the participation of older peoplecommunicate effectively about what has happened as a result of the involvement of older people50identify resources to support the involvement of older people. It may not be very expensive butmoney and staff time will be required.Identifying Age Discrimination 8Age discrimination can take many forms:direct age discrimination occurs when people are treated less favourably on the basis of theirage. Indirect age discrimination occurs when a group of people are treated less favourably for areason other than their age and this treatment disproportionately affects one age grouppositive discrimination indicates that some provision may be reserved for older people or theyhave high prioritymultiple discrimination indicates that age discrimination can be compounded by other factorsincluding race, gender and disabilitypolicies – an initial audit, though undertaken, might not have identified muchcustom and practice (harder to identify and usually the result of assumptions about olderpeople’s capacity to benefit)environments including wards, day centres and other places where older people are cared for cansometimes be of lower standard than those used by younger people.8 As noted in the Introduction, this is not the legal definition as set out in Irish equality legislation.Conference Proceedings