Think Ahead
Think ahead: these meetings are your opportunity to make a contribution to a long-term plan to make Ireland a better place in which to grow older.
Identify issues that are important to you. It might also help to be aware of key themes that were raised at Older & Bolder’s own consultation meetings on the subject of positive ageing. Older & Bolder conducted these meetings between November 2008 and June 2009 in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Sligo, Tralee, Trim, Tullamore and Wexford and they were attended by six hundred and sixty older people in all.
Service Provision
Participants expressed appreciation for services where they existed, but concern was also expressed, across all the consultations, about availability of core services. The range of services most referred to and considered core included: housing; health; education; leisure; transport and information.
Participants valued services that were available, accessible, predictable, sufficiently funded, of appropriate quality and provided on an outreach basis. However, participants expressed concern where these elements were lacking and where difficulties were experienced in dealing with multiple agencies.
Participants recognised quality service provision where available, however, many felt that the current system was too dependent on eligibility criteria that were often complex, hard to understand and inconsistently applied.
Participants viewed access to affordable quality health care services as a fundamental and basic right.
Affordable and appropriate transport was named as a necessity in order to access essential services.
Ensuring an adequate income for all older people was stressed by most and this was strongly linked to the possibility of leading an independent life. Particular challenges exist for those solely dependent on the State Pension, and for women. These groups were identified as deserving particular attention.
Those consulted stressed the need to make possibilities for good quality of life available to all older people and not just the ‘actively old’; including members of the most marginalised groups and specifically to older people in residential care and those suffering from dementia.
Positive Ageing and Ageism
Ageism has been defined as a combination of three connected elements: prejudicial attitudes; discriminatory practices; and institutional practices and policies that perpetuate stereotypes about older people.
Some participants at the Older & Bolder consultation meetings identified ageist behaviour citing examples of professionals and public servants talking ‘down to’ or ‘over’ older people. Others noted that unhelpful media attitudes contribute to an ageist culture with older people portrayed as a ‘strain on resources’ or ‘bed blockers’. Ageism was also experienced at a systematic or structural level, an example of this being age limits to certain cancer screening services.
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