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The article recognizes the number of Americans age 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population. Furthermore,  older patients are often viewed by health professionals to have mental health problems such as cognitive impairment or psychological disorders that often go unrecognized and untreated.

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The number of Americans 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population, geropsychologists say. Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism.

In fact, in a survey of 84 people ages 60 and older, nearly 80 percent of respondents reported experiencing ageism--such as other people assuming they had memory or physical impairments due to their age. The 2001 survey by Duke University's Erdman Palmore, PhD, also revealed that the most frequent type of ageism--reported by 58 percent of respondents--was being told a joke that pokes fun at older people. Thirty-one percent reported being ignored or not taken seriously because of their age. The study appeared in The Gerontologist (Vol. 41, No. 5).

And what's worse, ageism also seeps into mental health care. Older patients are often viewed by health professionals as set in their ways and unable to change their behavior, aging experts say. Mental health problems--such as cognitive impairment or psychological disorders caused at least in part by complex pharmacological treatments--often go unrecognized and untreated in this growing demographic, many researchers believe.

The deficit in treatment comes at a time when those over the age of 85 make up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Nearly 35 million Americans are over 65 years old, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and that number is expected to double by 2030 to 20 percent of the population.

Those numbers come as no surprise to geropsychologists, who--as they mark Older Americans Month this May--continue working to get the word out about the need for better elder care. Their ultimate aim is to expand training and research opportunities in this area and eliminate ageism in all facets of society--from demeaning stereotypes portrayed in the media to the public's personal biases.
The effects of ageism
Not only are negative stereotypes hurtful to older people, but they may even shorten their lives, finds psychologist Becca Levy, PhD, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. In Levy's longitudinal study of 660 people 50 years and older, those with more positive self-perceptions of aging lived 7.5 years longer than those with negative self-perceptions of aging. The study appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 83, No. 2).

On the other hand, people's positive beliefs about and attitudes toward the elderly appear to boost their mental health. Levy has found that older adults exposed to positive stereotypes have significantly better memory and balance, whereas negative self-perceptions contributed to worse memory and feelings of worthlessness.

"Age stereotypes are often internalized at a young age--long before they are even relevant to people," notes Levy, adding that even by the age of four, children are familiar with age stereotypes, which are reinforced over their lifetimes.

Fueling the problem is the media's portrayal of older adults, Levy says. At a Senate hearing last fall, Levy testified before the Special Committee on Aging about the effects of age stereotypes. Doris Roberts, the Emmy-award winning actress in her seventies from the T.V. show "Everybody Loves Raymond," also testified at the hearing.

"My peers and I are portrayed as dependent, helpless, unproductive and demanding rather than deserving," Roberts testified. "In reality, the majority of seniors are self-sufficient, middle-class consumers with more assets than most young people, and the time and talent to offer society."

Indeed, the value that the media and society place on youth might explain the growing number of cosmetic surgeries among older adults, Levy notes. Whether this trend is positive or negative in combating ageism is one of many areas within geropsychology that needs greater research, she says.
What can psychologists do?
Psychologists need to respond to ageism the same way they do when a person is discriminated against because of race or a disability, says Jacqueline Goodchilds, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Goodchilds, on behalf of APA's Committee on Aging (CONA), drafted a resolution against ageism that was approved by APA's Council of Representatives in February 2002. The resolution says that APA is against ageism "in all its forms" and emphasizes APA's commitment to support efforts to eliminate it.

"APA was against racism, sexism and all the other 'isms'--it made sense to be against ageism too," Goodchilds says of the resolution.

Other APA groups are also working to combat ageism through funding, training and federal policies supporting geropsychologists. For example, one APA initiative--through the Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) program--recently received $3 million for geropsychology training this year. The funding will be devoted exclusively to training geropsychologists in mental and behavioral-health services for older adults through APA-accredited programs.

Increasing the number of doctoral-level trained geropsychologists as well as making age-related information more available to researchers, practitioners and students are top objectives for CONA. One of the group's recent efforts is to get more aging content incorporated into all levels of schools' curricula.

"We need to raise the consciousness of the need for aging material," says CONA chair Forrest Scogin, PhD, a University of Alabama psychology professor. "There needs to be a greater awareness of who the older adults are--they are a diverse group. Ageism and stereotypes just don't work."

The workplace also needs psychologists' attention, says Harvey Sterns, PhD, president of APA's Div. 20 (Adult Development and Aging) and director of The University of Akron's Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reported a more than 24 percent increase in the number of age-discrimination complaints filed this year compared with the previous two years. Employees over the age of 40 are often considered "old" and not offered the same training, promotion opportunities and pay as younger colleagues, Sterns says.

Div. 20 is working to counteract such workplace and other age stereotypes by addressing the need for more trained geropsychologists and promoting age-friendly environments for the growth and development of older adults. "There is a long tradition within APA of dealing with these issues, but that doesn't mean they don't have to be revisited with intensity over and over again," Sterns says. "This doesn't go away."

The key, Scogin notes, is educating psychologists and the general population alike about America's growing elderly population. "If we have people--from secondary education to continuing education, to professionals--with a greater awareness of aging as an important component, then that could have an impact on reducing ageism."

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The number of Americans 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population, geropsychologists say. Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism.

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This article unfortunately gives the elderly unfulfilling information on what they should do if events in their life seem to change. The articles title alone conveys that the elderly are lonely at their age.

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To avoid social isolation and improve your health and well-being: get out and see more things where you are. You might get out to a local park or shopping center or even to a nice city block. You could take a trip out to another city or even a country that you have never been to before.

Whatever the case is, you should look around and see what is out there for you to visit. Feel free meet up with other older people to take a look at what is around in the world and what makes it so special. Anything that helps you feel a little more connected to the world around you is always worthwhile. Even the smallest social experience can make a difference and avoid loneliness and depression.

Think about the places that you might want to go to and see what you can do about getting there. You should also think about any activities that you might be interested in as you travel to a new place.

One of the greatest problems with isolation and loneliness is that it causes people to ignore their health and well-being-both physical and psychological well-being. Lonely people often feel as though no one has a concern for them, thus leading such people to drink, smoke, and eat unhealthy food.

In addition to keeping yourself active, concentrating on your health can help you to meet other people. You could get out to a gym or park and meet other health-conscious people who share similar goals as you. You might even meet people at an organic supermarket or other healthy living store.

One great part of being healthy is that it stimulates your brain. This keeps it active and feeling young. More importantly, your brain will start to release hormones that make you feel positive about yourself. As these hormones start to work, you will feel more positive and in more control over your body. This gives you the energy you need to stay focused and ready for whatever may come about in your life.

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6 Things To Do When Dealing With Loneliness At An Old Age | Updated for 2020 | AgingInPlace.org

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To avoid social isolation and improve your health and well-being: get out and see more things where you are. You might get out to a local park or shopping center or even to a nice city block. You could take a trip out to another city or even a country that you have never been to before.

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This article discussed the medias portrayal of ageism through the perspective of someone elder. Concluding that Cornell University has conducted research challenging stereotypes and myths about elderly people.

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Credit... Lizzie Gill

It happened about a year ago. I stepped off the subway and spotted an ad on the station wall for a food delivery service. It read: "When you want a whole cake to yourself because you're turning 30, which is basically 50, which is basically dead."

After a bunch of us squawked about the ad on social media, the company apologized for what it called attempted humor and what I'd call ageism.

Maybe you recall another media campaign last fall intended to encourage young people's participation in the midterm elections. In pursuit of this laudable goal, marketers invoked every negative stereotype of old people - selfish, addled, unconcerned about the future - to scare their juniors into voting.

Adweek called it "comically savage." I'd drop the "comically."

And such jabs constitute mere microaggressions compared to the forms ageism often takes: pervasive employment discrimination, biased health care, media caricatures or invisibility. When internalized by older adults themselves, ageist views can lead to poorer mental and physical health.

"It's an incredibly prevalent and insidious problem," said Alana Officer, who leads the World Health Organization's global campaign against ageism, which it defines as "stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination" based on age. "It affects not only individuals, but how we think about policies."

As a first step in the campaign, announced in 2016, W.H.O. has invested half a million dollars in research. Four teams around the world are collecting and assessing the available evidence on ageism - its causes and health consequences, how to combat it, and how best to measure it.

Their work will appear in a United Nations report to be published within a year, and will culminate in international mobilization, organizers hope.

One of the research groups, at Cornell University, has already completed its task, and is about to publish its study in the American Journal of Public Health. It brings surprisingly good news.

The team spent a year and a half sifting through dozens of articles, from the 1970s through last year, evaluating anti-ageism programs. Such efforts popped up around the country in the years after psychiatrist and gerontologist Dr. Robert Butler coined the term ageism in 1969.

"But are they doing any good?" asked Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist and senior author of the study. "Do interventions that purport to change people's attitudes about ageism actually work?"

The researchers analyzed 64 studies, most conducted in the United States, involving 6,124 participants, from preschoolers to young adults. The investigators classified about a third of the programs studied as intergenerational, meaning they created contacts between young and old that, in theory, could lessen prejudice.

Another third or so were educational, teaching facts about aging as a way to challenge stereotypes and myths. The remainder combined both approaches.

These were small, inexpensive, local efforts, pointed out the study's lead author, David Burnes, now a gerontologist at the University of Toronto. They included:

Almost universally, after such interventions, participants showed significantly less ageism on attitude tests and greater knowledge of aging than comparison groups that hadn't taken part. The combined educational and intergenerational approach proved the most effective.

"The message is loud and clear," Dr. Pillemer said. "Ageist attitudes don't seem as baked in as we think. They may be relatively malleable."

That matters, because ageism is hardly benign. "These stereotypes can have direct impact on older people's health and function," said Becca Levy, a social psychologist at the Yale School of Public Health, and the leader of the W.H.O.-sponsored review of studies on health consequences.

The research her group is reviewing will include her own important work on ageism, conducted over 20 years. Dr. Levy has shown that older people who see aging in positive terms are much more likely to recover from disability than those who believe negative age stereotypes.

They're also more likely to practice preventive health measures such as eating well and exercising. They experience less depression and anxiety. They live longer.

Recently, Dr. Levy and her colleagues have been looking into ageism and cognition.

"With negative stereotypes, older people have a higher risk of dementia," she said. "They have greater accumulations of plaques and tangles in the brain, the biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, and a reduced size of the hippocampus," the part of the brain associated with memory.

So this is no joke. Yet "there's a lot of social acceptance of ageism," Dr. Levy noted, pointing to television, social media and everyday interactions. Although studies have found that children as young as three or four already hold ageist ideas, now "we have research showing that we can overcome it."

Key questions remain unanswered. The studies the Cornell group analyzed followed participants for an average of 15 weeks, so we don't know how long the positive effects of such interventions last. There's scant data, too, on how to shift older people's own internalized ageism.

Nor do we know whether and how positive attitudes translate to action. Will less ageist citizens support stronger enforcement of laws against workplace age discrimination? Or defend Medicare and Social Security from heedless budget cutters?

But seeing how even short-lived interventions can move the attitudinal needle, I'm encouraged to continue my personal anti-ageism campaign. (Author and activist Ashton Applewhite has established a helpful online clearinghouse called Old School.)

It's not always easy to find the balance between shrugging off offensive messages and counterproductive scolding, but individuals can speak up about ageist generalizations.

We can argue the merits of one or another politician without rejecting candidates simply because they're too old (or too young). We can distribute atta-girls and atta-boys to those unafraid to show their true faces and hair color (while acknowledging that, yes, the labor market sometimes dictates otherwise).

We can gently protest when even beloved friends and family succumb to stereotypical thinking.

A few months back, during the relaxation phase of my morning exercise class, the instructor asked us - against a background of dreamy music - to visualize floating down the Seine on a romantic evening. Picture the moon, she intoned. Imagine that you're 30.

Well. She meant it jokingly, but every student in the class was at least a couple of decades past that (as was she), yet remained capable of enjoying moonlight in Paris.

A discussion ensued. Point made. Point taken.

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Ageism: A 'Prevalent and Insidious' Health Threat

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It happened about a year ago. I stepped off the subway and spotted an ad on the station wall for a food delivery service. It read: "When you want a whole cake to yourself because you're turning 30, which is basically 50, which is basically dead."

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Are Seniors Living Better with Technology?

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Are Seniors Living Better with Technology?

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This article talked about several different forms of technology, mainly V.R. (Virtual Reality) in helping elderly people with Alzheimer's and help researchers with finding ques in the stages of it.

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The Taco Bell Super Bowl ad of 2013 used a Spanish soundtrack of a very popular song of the time "We Are Young" by FUN. The ad features a group of elderly folks enjoying a night on the town after sneaking out of the home with their final destination Taco Bell. This portrays that Taco Bell makes you feel young and reckless.