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AgeismJust the Facts, PleasePosted by: Anti-Ageism Task ForceNovember 1, 2009 —Monsignor Charles Fahey, chairman of the board of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), and James Firman, NCOA’s president and CEO, penned a compelling article titled "Ageism and Health Care Reform: Older Adults Deserve Straight Talk" in the October 21, 2009 issue of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. Fahey/Firman hark back to the Vietnam war to remind everyone just how long the the term "ageism" has been in effect, and who coined the term: In 1968, when Vietnam and political protest created a cultural generation gap in America, the Pulitzer Prize-winning gerontologist, psychiatrist and founding director of the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Robert Butler, identified another kind of generation gap. He dubbed it “ageism,” the tendency to dismiss older people as interchangeable, less than competent, diminished by age. Today ...ageism is creeping into the health reform debate. ~ Fahey/Firman, Roll Call
The authors speak candidly about the dangers of using scare tactics and/or putting glosses on the pros and cons of health reform. They call for providing older adults with specific information about how the new proposals will benefit them (or not) with regards to caregiving, care for chronic illnesses, and the "growing epidemic of elder abuse." Do you feel like you're getting the hard facts in the health reform debate? Our recent snap poll shows 46% of our readers support reform and 35% are opposed. As always, we encourage you to join the conversation.
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