Attitude Toward Elderly

Old Age Attitudes towards Older People Attitudes and treatment towards elderly people can be said to vary drastically across cultures. From Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the America’s, Africa and Australia, the attitudes expressed by the community towards older people are very different when compared to one another. 1. In the 1960s, Robert Butler coined the phrase ageism, which he defined as: “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender.
Old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills . . . . Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings . . . “. People of older age who were once respected and admired are now being dehumanized and being categorized as “undesirables”.
People looked up to them as someone who have been around the block a couple more times and therefore they held a certain level of knowledge in their life banks that society thought of as useful. Society has robbed them of those life banks now and is holding them hostage in “homes”. Instead of grandchildren getting to enjoy stories of war, love, life, and experiences from their grandparents around the dinner table they are subject to visiting them in retirement homes.

Those same people who took care of the new society and gave up so much to raise them are now being “punished” for aging and al the affects that come along with it. People use to hold doors open, do lawn work, fix things, anything they could to help and show respect for their elders who were incapable of doing such for themselves. Now-a-days those people have turned their cheeks on elders and just throw them in a retirement home to make it easier on themselves. However there is a town in New York that is reviving the respect owed to all elders. 2. The community was built on the backs of our seniors,” said Melissa Lee of the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which is in charge of the program. “It’s important that now they reap the fruits of their labors and are able to age in place. ” Treating older people as if they are completely useless and incompetent is not only demoralizing them but it is also dehumanizing them. Not only are people handing over the well being of their parents/grandparents/ect. over to a caregiver, but they are not putting in effort to see who some of these care givers truly are.
They bully them by: withholding medication from or overmedicating the elderly person, keeping the elderly person in unclean living quarters, not maintaining the elderly person’s physical appearance, sexual abuse, preventing the elderly person from having any or meaningful contact with his or her family, neighbors, or the public, psychological abuse which includes name-calling or a systematic plan to dehumanize the elderly person and make him or her more dependent upon the caregiver, the caregiver prompting the elderly person to answer questions and putting words in the elderly person’s mouth. . Before the early 1980s, there was little, if any, reference made to elder abuse in literature that did address family violence. However, as the years pass, more and more studies have been made, and research conducted on this subject. In 1990, the information of two incidence studies and their results was released, which revealed shocking statistics: anywhere between 1. 6 million and 2 million Americans considered elderly were abuse victims each year. Some of this abuse occurred in the family home; some in institutions. In 2003, the Elder Justice Act was implemented.
The neglect and shame put upon the elderly has reached such a peak that they are now the “undesirables” among society. Set aside and cast away from the new age society, elders have become invisible to today’s youth. Elders are seen to have no purpose or abilities left, which makes them completely and utterly useless to society. Therefore society continues to go on and change leaving elders where they are and not doing things to improve their lives. Stories making headlines such as 4. “To Be Elderly And Unwanted In Mohegan Lake” show the shameful act of some communities to rid of their elderly. shameful story of how a respected local nonprofit group has tried to winterize four summer cottages to house eight elderly poor people – and how neighbors and town officials have fought them so that the case has dragged on three years. ” These kinds of stories are too often seen and there is a heightening need for young people to come down a few levels and see their elders and respect who they are. The scarce respect that is left for elders is rapidly being taken over by dehumanizing and demoralizing traits. Instead of just sitting and talking or oing to play games with all of the people of old age in society, the new age people of society decide to take the elders to “homes” that will do it for them. However society is not looking long term, they are only looking at instant gratification moves. In twenty to thirty years when this society becomes the elders karma is going to come back and have some harsh payback to hand them. The only thing to be done to stop this awful cycle would be to start respecting, admiring and helping out the old age of today because nobody stays young forever. Works Citied The New York Times. The New York Times. Web. 27 Apr. 012. . Elizabeth, Jessica Anne. “The Elderly Abuse Prevention Act. ” EHow. Demand Media, 21 July 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . “Respect Your Elders: Bed-Stuy Launches an ‘AgingA Improvement District’A . ” NY Daily News. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. http://www. nydailynews. com/new-york/brooklyn/respect-elders-bed-stuy-launches-aging-improvement-district-article-1. 1067380? localLinksEnabled. “Sonnet 127: In the Old Age Black Was Not Counted Fair – Poem by William Shakespeare. ” Famous Poets and Poems. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . “Why Has the Elderly Lost Society’s Respect? ” HubPages. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . Old Age Formal Outline I.
Attitudes and treatment towards elderly people can be said to vary drastically across cultures. From Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the America’s, Africa and Australia, the attitudes expressed by the community towards older people are very different when compared to one another. 1. In the 1960s, Robert Butler coined the phrase ageism, which he defined as: “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender. Old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills . . . Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings . . . “. People of older age who were once respected and admired are now being dehumanized and being categorized as “undesirables”. II. People looked up to them as someone who have been around the block a couple more times and therefore they held a certain level of knowledge in their life banks that society thought of as useful. A) Robbed of cherished memories with grandchildren. 1. being placed in “homes” 2. unable to see family
B) Going from being honored to abandoned by all. III. Treating older people as if they are completely useless and incompetent is not only demoralizing them but it is also dehumanizing them. A) Caregivers bullying elders. 1. withholding medicine, keeping away from family 2. calling names, planting mental attacks on them. B) Elder abuse on a rise. 1. 1980 almost unheard of 2. 1990 research shows shocking high results of abuse 3. 2003 Elder Justice Act put to work IV. The neglect and shame put upon the elderly has reached such a peak that they are now the “undesirables” among society.
A) Cast aside from society 1. invisible to younger society 2. left in the dust of new age change B) Fought to be kept hidden 1. neighbors don’t want them 2. court cases filed to keep away 3. numerous stories making headlines suggesting the “unwanted” C) Society steps down to analyze what needs to change. V. The scarce respect that is left for elders is rapidly being taken over by dehumanizing and demoralizing traits. Instead of just sitting and talking or going to play games with all of the people of old age in society, the new age people of society decide to take the elders to “homes” that will do it for them.
However society is not looking long term, they are only looking at instant gratification moves. In twenty to thirty years when this society becomes the elders karma is going to come back and have some harsh payback to hand them. The only thing to be done to stop this awful cycle would be to start respecting, admiring and helping out the old age of today because nobody stays young forever. Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fair by William Shakespeare In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name;
But now is black beauty’s successive heir, And beauty slandered with a bastard shame. For since each hand hath put on nature’s power, Fairing the foul with art’s false borrowed face, Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower, But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace. Therefore my mistress’ eyes are raven black, Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem, At such who, not born fair no beauty lack, Sland’ring creation with a false esteem. Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe, That every tongue says beauty should look so.