new technology in the human services

Robin B (2001) How are we to grow old?
New Technology in the Human Services 14 (1 & 2), pp. 3-8


Abstract: In our society the phrase ‘the elderly’ conjures up a picture of passive recipients of care tended by nurses in a stone built Victorian mansion at the end of a long drive. None of us would want this for ourselves in later life and yet we seem to accept it as the inevitable consequence of ageing, at least when we think of the ageing of others. For us, no doubt, things will be different, or will it? The Royal Commission on Long Term Care reminded us that in recent years it has become common for older people to go into residential or nursing home care after a crisis in their own home or on discharge from hospital. (Sutherland S, 1999) Despite the evidence around us, most of us will assume we have some sort of immunity to the physical slowing down and dependence on others that goes with this image of ageing. But if we, as a society do not take action, many of us will be driven down that long one-way drive to the Victorian mansion. Professor Tom Kirkwood, in the first of his Reith Lectures, drew attention to the prejudice that exists in relation to older people. “On a regular basis we read, hear, or ourselves make flippant, jokey or negative remarks about the state of being old. ‘Grumpy old’, ‘silly old’, ‘boring old’, ‘dirty old’ - the linkages are so familiar that we fail to notice what we are doing.” (Kirkwood T, 2001) These are the underlying cultural prejudices that permeate the social environment in which our grandparents and parents have grown old. When we design services for them we seem to overlook their capacity to be contributors or their desire to be independent. If we do nothing to change the way we regard ageing, these will be the cultural influences that will shape the way we grow old.

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