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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Dignity and older people
— the voice of society | | Author(s) | David Stratton, Win Tadd |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing, vol 6, no 1, June 2005 |
| Pages | pp 37-45 (Dignity and older Europeans, part 1) |
| Source | http://www.pavpub.com |
| Keywords | Health services ; Services ; Management [care] ; Rights [elderly] ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Quality of life ; Qualitative Studies ; Europe. |
| Annotation | Findings are described from 89 focus groups held with 505 young (13-39 years) and middle-aged (40-59 years) adults in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Slovakia and Sweden. There were many similarities across all countries; most differences were between the different age groups rather than different countries. Five major themes were identified from the comparative data: views of dignity; old age and ageing; views of older people's lives across the generations; and adding dignity to older people's lives. Many of these findings confirmed those of the focus groups with older people and health and social care professionals. Dignity was important to people of all ages, but particularly to older people. Being treated as an individual was critical to the maintenance of dignity. In the participating countries, older people were generally treated negatively and undervalued, and seen as vulnerable, second-class citizens. Old age was perceived as a time of physical and mental deterioration, poverty and dependency. Intergenerational activities were important for both individual self-esteem and the ability to participate fully in society. Suggestions for enhancing dignity included greater public awareness about the dignity of older people and about existing care and support services for them. Health policies should also tackle ageism in service provision and the development standards in health and social care for older people could do much to improve dignity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050714215 A |
| Classmark | L: I: QA: IKR: TOB: F:59: 3DP: 74 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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