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

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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
Where to Look for Evidence of Age DiscriminationIt is important to know where to look for evidence of age discrimination. Evidence can be found in:surgery statisticsnationally collected comparative datainspection reportslocal research studies into, for example, facilities, staff ratios or skill mix in services for older andyounger peopleinformation from older people (discussions in local fora and discovery interviews etc.), staff(focus groups and workshops etc.) and voluntary organisations (older people’s groups, minorityethnic groups and local faith groups etc.)observation (on the wards, in clinics etc.)complaints.Simple questionnaires asking whether older people have suffered age discrimination have not beenfound to be very effective.How to Judge Whether it is Age DiscriminationWe identified ten questions which help to reach a judgement, of which the following are examples:Do age-related criteria in relation to specific health or social care services allow for someflexibility to reflect the needs of individuals? Enabling younger people with dementia, forexample, to use specialist services that may be used mostly by older people or enabling an olderperson with learning disabilities to use services that primarily serve younger people provided thatthe services continue to be appropriate for the individual.51Is there research evidence to support the effectiveness of an age-related model of servicedelivery? If so, what is the evidence and is it robust? Does it include research findings that arebased on older people's experiences? Were older people, for example, included in clinical trials onthe effectiveness of medicines?Is there evidence of older people preferring an age-related model of service delivery? This mightinclude special wards, day centres or other services used exclusively for older people. If so, whatis the evidence and is it robust? Does it allow for different preferences among older people? Isthe evidence reasonably recent in order to reflect changing views and values?Can age-related criteria be justified by organisational factors? These might include specialistservices for older people with similar needs or the requirement to have a particular number ofpeople in order to offer services or ensure an appropriate skill mix in the staff group.If the answer to any of the main or subsidiary questions above is ‘no’, age-related criteria may notbe justified.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 20 and 21: Ageism and Attitudes toOlder People
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 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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