If there is something that bothered Natalia, it was that phrase from the doctor: “Come on, come on!” Don’t complain. That he is quite well for his age. What more could you want?”. In his eighties and with several ailments, nothing too serious, those words, she complained to her daughters, overwhelmed her. Because yes, because she considered that the doctor who saw her in consultation or sometimes visited her at her house, treated her differently because she was older and, above all, he came to tell her that, with her age, I didn’t aspire to much more. To her – young spirit, desire to live – what she needed was the opposite. That they would throw her up. To feel better emotionally. Which had a full impact on his health.
His daughter Sara remembers him (figurative name) when he recreates those moments from the past. And the anger that she felt at her, at the indifference that, at times, the doctor showed her, when, she herself, I had a chance to talk to the doctor and ask him, for example, if it was better to change his medication or do an extra test. Always referring to that age.
“Gerontophobia” exists
It is not an isolated case. “Gerontophobia” – understood as rejection of older people, associating them with decadence, illness or decrepitude – exists, maintains Javier Sánchez Caro, president of the Bioethics Committee of Castilla-La Mancha, in conversation with El Periódico de España, from the same editorial group as this newspaper. Also in the health field, he affirms, although not only.
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, spoke about this very delicate issue this week at the conference held in her department on ‘Discrimination against Older People in the Field of Health’, which was also attended by the Minister of Health. Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030Pablo Bustinduy.
García highlighted the need to transform the approach to care for the elderly, “not only so that it adds years to life, but so that it adds life to those years, guaranteeing that older people live with dignity and autonomy“.
From ethics
Some conclusions reached on this day were the “true existence” of an ageist impact towards older people or “gerontophobia”, as influenced by Sanchez Caro. The expert defines the term as more precise that “ageism” which, he says, is not exclusive to the elderly, but can affect children, mature people…
“It is a phobia, fear or fear of the elderly. Discrimination begins with the terminology itself. We talk about the elderly, as the Constitution says, but there is a fourth age, which is 80 years old, which does not even contemplate it,” he says.
Not only in health
In practice, he adds, this stereotype is observed when people are called “old man, old man, retiree, carrack… Sometimes, more than discrimination there is stigmatization. And this exists. It is not only typical of health, it exists in the political, labor… In health, there is discrimination due to the mere fact of old age. It is said that the elderly have a capacity. impaired cognitive; When there is a memory error, it is attributed to age, something that cannot be attributed to young people. In the diseases, in young people it is said that they are inevitable, if you are older it is said that it is inherent to age,” he says.
Besides, discrimination between men and womenpoints out “If the man is older, he is wise; if it is a woman, she is a grandmother, even if she is perfect. In short, there is a discrimination that from the common point of view is understood as consubstantial with having lived. ‘Of course, He has already lived long enough and now what he has to do is die.’ This age discrimination is what unfortunately took place due to the pandemic, and that is a truly unfortunate fact. And not only in Madrid. In all communities“says the lawyer and president of the Bioethics Committee of Castilla-La Mancha.
Social prejudice
“Discrimination against people older people begins with the already existing social stereotype, which precedes social prejudice and discrimination,” For his part, José Augusto García Navarro points outpresident of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SEGG), for whom it is “a very important issue” because, he admits, these elderly people sometimes face situations of “non-equal” treatment.
In the same line, Aída Díaz Shopkeepermember of the HelpAge Spain board, addressed the issue of lack of protection in his speech at the ministry headquarters of social rights in Europe in comparison, for example, with civil rights, and specifically, the existing lack of protection of the right to health.
Worst state of health
HelpAge Spain launched the report ‘Discrimination against older people in the field of health’ a year ago. “There is evidence that one of the consequences of ageism is its association with a worse state of health, for example reasons ranging from denialexplicit or not, to the victim being able to have unhindered access to certain diagnostic and/or therapeutic means, to the difficulties in accessing health services or prevention campaigns,” the introduction states.
“Traditionally, many professionals have considered the agewithout any type of scruple and generously, as a criterion to contraindicate certain forms of medical action. They have done so for various reasons, ranging from a supposed benefit for the interested party to avoiding inconvenience and risks. It is an attitude that, although attenuated in quantitative terms, largely remains alive today,” it is noted.
Experts talk about the exclusion of the elderly in disease screening programs or “minimal” representation in clinical trials
Some examples of age discrimination in medicine that the exhaustive report reviews are: if we talk about Primary care and health promotion, Exclusion of the elderly is cited in numerous public health promotion and disease screening programs; “poor representation” in intervention studies on risk factors or “minimal” representation in clinical trials with drugs specifically aimed at the older population.
Hospitalization criteria
The document abounds in discriminatory treatment (location in corridors, establishment of priorities) in some Emergency services and in hospitalization criteria; persistence of age criteria on numerous occasions for access to ICU, ICU, coronary units, etc., initial historical rejection of chronic dialysis programs or difficulties in access to complex diagnostic techniques.