UNDERSTANDING AND CHANGING HOW PEOPLE THINK ABOUT OLDER PEOPLE
 
Key messages
Beliefs about people who are older are often wrong and under estimate ability and potential 
 Hostility may be increasing because of concerns about older people’s use of carbon, pension rights and protection during Covid
  Attitudes towards older people are too pessimistic 
   People generalise about older people in ways that would be considered unacceptable if made about other sub groups in society

What do we mean by beliefs and attitudes?
 
These terms are widely used but they have a definite and different meaning and examples of the different meanings are given below.

• A belief is obviously , in  the words of the Professor Halligan, an expert in this subject, “What people believe about the nature of their illness” whether or not that belief is scientifically based or just something another person has told them The belief  may be  true or false or of unknown significance. For example many people believe that everything that happens to people as they  grow older is due to ageing. This is wrong but leads to pessimistic attitudes 
• An attitude is defined in one of the leading books on disease prevention as  “a relatively stable tendency to respond consistently to particular people, objects, or situations”. People who are pessimistic always see the glass as half empty. 

 
For example ; A person may believe that all people over eighty suffer from a disease called sarcopenia and on the basis of this belief have the pessimistic attitude that it is pointless to try to help people over the age of 80 increase their strength in spite of the scientific evidence that even people over 90 can increase their strength 
 
 
 That person will have a pessimistic attitude and will not encourage an older person to be more active, although he may see himself as being caring because he rushes to do something for that old person rather than see them  ‘struggle’ even though he goes regularly to a gym where an observer would classify what he was doing in  the gym as ‘struggling’
 
Understanding Ageism
 
In general younger people believe that have negative beliefs about older people,a belief called ageism 
 




This important report from the Royal Society for Public Health emphasises the importance of ageism 
 

 

Beliefs and attitudes are important because they influence decisions and actions.

Of particular importance for people whose age is increasing  is that there is a set of negative beliefs and a set of pessimistic attitudes.  
 
Examples of negative beliefs which are wrong include

• There’s no point in doing anything for people aged 70 
• Ageing is responsible for disability and dependence
• There is no difference between ageing and dementia
• There is no point in arguing with someone who is over 85
• Fitness and training are relevant for only young people

 
Examples of pessimistic attitudes include

• I will start doing more things for my mother, now that she is ageing that is the kind thing to do
• All we need to do for older people is provide more 'care' namely do more things for them because they cannot do things for themselves and cannot recover their ability to do things for themselves?
• I have no expectations that older people could take responsibility for organising services or being involved in the organisation of services; we have to do it for them

 
 
It is also important to remember that people aged 60 or 70 or whatever age differ from one another in many more ways than they resemble one another 
 
These beliefs influence the individual whose age is increasing and they may come to believe and accept them all even if they were positive and optimistic when they were younger. This is what we mean by the social process of growing older it is a process that is influenced by the negative beliefs and pessimistic attitudes of other people. It is the fourth process that affects us as we live longer
 

 
The arrows show that the negative beliefs and attitudes have an influence on the three other factors in the way described below 

• With Ageing -Negative beliefs about the effects of aging are over pessimistic and this leads to unduly negative attitudes towards, and of, older people.
• With Disease- Negative beliefs about disease and ageing too often result in the assumption that disease is inevitable whereas many diseases can be prevented, postponed or managed effectively.
• With Fitness- Negative beliefs about the benefits of physical, mental and social activity lead to inactivity and preventable decline due to loss of fitness.

 
 
 
 Hostility 
 
As the economy gets tougher attitudes  may harden and it is not surprising when the difficulties faced by young people in, for example buying a house are considered. Furthermore as the population balance changes with not only an increase in the number of older people , what is called absolute ageing but also a decrease in the number of younger people due to falling birth rates , what is called relative ageing, that there is growing resentment about the financial cost of pensions 
 
Sometimes this is stimulated by debate about retirement age , with some groups  fighting to retain a relatively low age 
 
 

 
Others wish to continue work past the statutory retirement age and in one famous oxford case the evidence was produced that the postholder was not excluding younger people from the position he was occupying
 

 
Older people have also been criticised for the resources they have consumed 
 




 
 
 
What can you do?
The most important thing for people as they are growing older is to have a clear understanding of the fact that most of the problems that occur as people grow older are not caused by ageing but by loss of fitness and disease. They also need to understand that on the basis of this understanding many of the beliefs about what happens to people as they get older are not based on scientific evidence.  What you need to believe is that 

• Ageing is not a major cause of problems until the nineties
• For most people what they regard as a change due to ageing from the early twenties is in fact a change primarily due to loss of fitness
• The accurate diagnosis and treatment of disease is essential but equally important, if not more important, is to maintain and indeed increase activity after the onset of a long term or chronic condition.  Activity needs to be maintained to maintain the level of fitness of an individual with a long term condition, or more than one long term condition, but because most people who reach their forties, fifties, sixties and beyond have already lost a lot of fitness the aim should always be to increase fitness, even after diagnosis of one or more than one long term conditions.
• Negative beliefs are one of the major causes of problems that people have as they grow older.
• Positive ageing is of vital importance in maintaining intellectual ability as well as physical activity
• Physical, social and mental activity are all of vital importance in maintaining and increasing both ability and reserve nad reducing the risk of dementia and frailty and dependence on other people 

 
Value yourself more highly
 
We know that older people already make a huge contribution to society. If it were not for people 70 plus supporting other people , friends and family and people they help ias volunteers the NHS would collapse to morrow 
 
The final point 
 
It is also important to remember that people aged 60 or 70 or whatever age differ from one another in many more ways than they resemble one another 
 
What can you do to help other people?
 
If you are trying to support an older person or a group of older people it is important think about their beliefs and attitudes and to assume that they share these bnegative beliefsand pessimistic attitudes 
 
Rather than tackle them directly ift may be mre effective to talk about the mistaken beliefs and attitudes which prevail generally and why the beliefs are wrong and theattitudes therefore unjusifiable
 
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