This Ageism Awareness Day, we’re using it as a reminder to consider how we treat, perceive and engage with older Australians.
Last year, Juniper published a report exploring how older Western Australians encounter ageism, their hopes for the future and what it means to live well.
The report – The Voice of Older Western Australians – found while older Western Australians are resilient, happy with their lives and generally optimistic about their future, two-thirds have experienced some form of age discrimination.
According to the report, the most common forms of discrimination are assumptions older Western Australians can’t do something because of their age or using a patronising voice to communicate with them. These experiences are more common with age.
Age-based discrimination elicits a range of negative emotions, but some forms have worse ramifications.
According to our report, being taken seriously by health care professionals and being treated disrespectfully by customer service workers has the most negative impact.
Ageism can have a profound impact on confidence, health, quality of life and control over life decisions. It can also limit older people from participating in our communities as full citizens and has proven impacts on physical health and longevity.
It’s why this Ageism Awareness Day we’re encouraging everyone to do what they can to address age discrimination.
- Call out ageism when you see it. Not everyone is aware when they are being ageist. We all need to think about our words and actions. Don’t be afraid to have a conversation.
- Do your bit within your own workplace or community to ensure older people can participate on equal terms with all others in all aspects of life.
- Visit the Every Age Counts website where you’ll find some great webinars, conversation starters and even a quiz to find out where you sit on the ageism spectrum!
We can all play our part in tackling ageism and changing the way Australia thinks about ageing and older people.
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