Ageism, or agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups based on age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors. Butler defined “ageism” as a combination of three connected elements. Initially, it was identified chiefly towards older people, old age, and the aging process; discriminatory practices against older people; and institutional practices and policies perpetuating stereotypes about elderly people. In this blog post, we always mean the prejudice that someone is “too old,” not “too young.” Ageism, in this sense, can also affect people younger than seniors.
Ageism is an all too frequent prejudice in society as a whole. Unfortunately, this bias is pervasive in people’s attitudes toward mental health consumers (people with a mental illness), even within the community seeking to help them.
I have had the experience of attending a mental health support group that only sought input from the younger people present, usually men and women under thirty years of age, despite the presence of older mental health consumers, myself included, who had no chance to speak except to introduce themselves and their diagnosis at the beginning of the meeting. Some support group members honestly seeking to help mental health consumers consider those who have reached middle age “too old to matter,” as if their age disqualifies them from a believable hope that their mental health can improve.
In the workplace, which for me is academia, I have been pleased to see the increasing measures put in place to help undergraduate and graduate students have support during periods of mental health crises. However, there is little in place for faculty having similar struggles. There is often simply no place within the workplace for such older people to go to get support.
In society as a whole, there seems to be a widespread denial that people’s mental health can be improved with the correct care and sympathy if they are middle-aged or older. It’s as if people tell themselves that “if someone isn’t out of the woods of mental health crises by their thirties, there is little hope they will ever make it through the trees.”
It is certainly true that the earlier in their life that a mental health consumer gets help, the better the prognosis. However, that doesn’t exclude the efficacy of medication, therapy, and the kindness of others for an older person.