Dr Marlene Krasovitsky, a consultant to the World Health Organization’s Global Campaign to Combat Ageism, and board member of Australia’s anti-ageism advocate body EveryAGECounts, describes elderspeak as a form of “benevolent ageism”.
“Research tells us that benevolent ageism is the most entrenched form of ageism because we tend to think of older people as frail, sick, dependent, passive,” Dr Krasovitsky tells writer Marcia van Zeller.
“Elderspeak diminishes and devalues. It erodes autonomy and voice and feeds the perception that older people are passive onlookers to life, basically irrelevant.”