Ageism and The Aging Population - Essay Example

Older people from a black minority ethnic background Every society around the globe has its reservations towards the aging population. The younger population always maintains a stereotypic perception regarding the senior citizens of the society. Ageism is the word that is often used to describe negative perception of older people. Ageism is the process or fact that every individual has to go through in his/her life; the only exemption from the process is, if a person dies in early age. Ageism has classifications within itself as well in terms of gender and ethnicity (Sargeant, 2001). In some societies, ageism is particularly linked to one ethnic background, most commonly the blacks as the target. Though it is weird fact that younger generation is prejudiced towards a group to which they will be eventually belonging too (Nelson, 2004). Moreover, ageism practice is often apparent in three major areas: prejudice in the work place, inequality in the opportunities in healthcare system, and most importantly, the social prejudice. It is common perception that old people are sick, powerless, and mentally deficient; thus leading to unfair treatment in various fields of life. The term oppression is described as barriers that restrict movement of one’s life in any direction. Multiple-oppression is the heightened form of oppression in which minority members not only face prejudice behavior by the dominant society players but also by the members of minority group who have perceived higher status (Bohan 1996, p. 124). Many theories have been formulated regarding the impact of ageing but Disengagement theory is the most famous among all the prevailing theories. The disengagement theory is one of the oldest theories related to aging. It basically explains the gradual withdrawal between the society and senior citizens. The withdrawal is a natural and universal process that is seen around the globe with little variation. According to the theory, the gradual withdrawal from society maintains equilibrium within the society, thus transferring knowledge, expertise and power from older generation to young. Thus, the theory is in favor that the aging population should not be given importance and it is not at all unethical to set them aside from the society. Perhaps, this should not be case; older people should not be neglected from the society only because they are old and are linked to particular minority background. Society, instead of replacing older people with youngsters, should rather increase opportunities and benefits for them, in return for all the services they have been providing to the society (Erickson, Stephenson, Bradley, & Williams, 2009). Moreover, according to Experience Corps Model intensive work can increase or sustain the mental and physical health of old people and they can give fruitful result in comparison to adults or youngsters (Fried, Carlson, Freedman, Frick, Glass, Hill, McGill, Rebok, Seeman, Tielsch, Wasik, & Zege, 2004). Therefore, rather than opting for disengagement theory, where the seniors are ignored, society should go for Experience Corp model; thus emphasizing the concept that “rolling stone gather no moss” (Daniel, 1998). Furthermore, it is a duty of the legislations and policy makers to give rights and ensure a happy and equitable life for the senior citizens, at least from their behalf. Perhaps, the legislations along with social workers should be providing equal opportunity rights to the senior citizens (Palmore, 1999). The main target of the prejudice are the old black minority members of the society, those belonging to black ethnicity and who are having a perceived lower social status in the society. Perhaps the old black minority people are the ones who are deserted from the normal way of living life. Many legislations and policy makers are themselves responsible for the society’s negative behavior towards the old black minority people. It is the legislation’s duty to enforce rules and policies thus giving equal rights, fair jobs, equal opportunity rights, equal health benefits and respect to everyone in the society. Therefore, due to the negligence of the legislation and government toward the minorities and aging population, social workers came into sight as an emerging need of the neglected and disserted people of society. The main vision and mission of all the social worker’s community is to provide equality to the minority members of the society. Though, when the government is doing nothing in favor of the minorities then social workers have to take some stand on the behalf of these people as social worker intervention is necessary to bring balance in society. Social workers will try providing equality to the minorities along with creating awareness in the society, so that the society at large starts contributing for the well being and equality of the minorities (Preece, 2005). Moreover, social workers have to maintain a balance between their personal and professional ethics, and put forward what is ethically correct in a particular situation. For instance, social workers at one place might not be allowing people belonging to different ethnicity other than whites to apply for their organizations, while on the other hand they are working for the best interest of the minorities. In this situation, the social worker is really confused and is not applying the professional ethics and role in society to his personal ethics; thus a clear dilemma would exist if the social worker doesn’t walk the talk (Weiss, 2008). The responsibility of social worker gets even more critical while dealing with old people who are black and belong to lower social class. The situation is very complex for social workers because dealing with old black minority people altogether is not easy. In such cases, social workers have to deal with discrimination issues in terms of age, race and social status, along with multiple oppression issues (Ambrosino, Heffernan, Shuttlesworth, & Ambrosino, 2011). Social worker has to safeguard the victim’s right in terms of ethnicity and age. Social workers also have to provide equal rights to the victim’s in health care service, job opportunity, promotion, and most importantly in society. It is a fact that older people routinely face discrimination, for instance through stereotyping and denial of opportunities available to other youngsters and adults. Today, anti-ageism is considered to be a vital part of effective social work, along with the issues related to gender, race, disability and sexual orientation (Kerr, Gordon, MacDonald, & Stalker, 2005). Moreover, social worker should be vigilant enough to reach the root cause of the problem. The effective social worker should deal with older people in different manner – sensitive communication, listening to the client patiently, challenging poor practice and promoting the strengths with them and how the client can get best of their abilities in terms of job opportunities and society acceptance (Palmore, Branch, & Harris 2005, p. 243). Many awareness programs should be held in society in order to emphasize the importance and dignity of older people. Furthermore, steps should be taken in creating jobs specifically designed for older and minority members of the society. Along with this, various jobs and health care benefits should be provided, so once a person gets old, he doesn’t feel deserted out of the society and have lots of thing to do and keep oneself busy in one’s work and feels empowered. The aging population is more experienced and learned people of the society, who are better off than adults and youngsters in terms of knowledge, experience and skills. The aging doesn’t mean that these people should be discarded from the society, considering that if they are of no good to society then they don’t have the right to have a better life. Thus, if every youngster/adult just thinks over the fact that a time will come when they will also be in the aging phase, what will they feel if they are treated as neglected or ignored members of society, then they would then be in a much better position to understand the older people’s part of the story and would hence be more cooperative with them. REFERENCES 1. Ambrosino, R., Heffernan, J., Shuttlesworth, G., and Ambrosino, R., 2011. Social Work and Social Welfare: An Introduction. USA: Cengage Learning. 2. Bohan, J.S., 1996. Psychology and sexual orientation: coming to terms. USA: Routledge, pp.124. 3. Erickson, M., Stephenson, C., Bradley, H., and Williams, S., 2009. Business in Society. UK: Polity. 4. Kerr, B., Gordon, J., MacDonald, C. and Stalker, K., 2005. Effective Social Work with Older People. Scottish Executive Social Research. 5. Nelson, T.D., 2004. Ageism: stereotyping and prejudice against older persons. USA: MIT Press 6. Palmore, E.B., Branch, L.G., Harris, D.K., 2005. Encyclopedia of ageism. USA: Routledge, pp. 243. 7. Palmore, E.D., 1999. Ageism: negative and positive. Springer Publishing Company, 8. Preece, J.J., 2005. Minority rights: between diversity and community. UK: Polity. 9. Sargeant, M., 2001. Age Discrimination and Diversity: Multiple Discrimination from an Age Perspective. UK: Cambridge University Press 10. Weiss, J.W., 2008. Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach USA: Cengage Learning. 11. Fried, L.P., Carlson, M.C., Freedman, M., Frick, K.D., Glass, T.A., Hill, J., McGill, S., Rebok, G.W., Seeman, T., Tielsch, J., Wasik, B.A. and Zege, S., 2004. A Social Model for Health Promotion for an Aging Population: Initial Evidence on the Experience Corps Model. USA: JHU school of Medicine. 12. Daniel, D.J., 1998. A rolling stone gathers no moss. USA: J.D. Daniel. Read More