Healthcare for All: Age

Welcome! This guide shares resources about age & ageism for the healthcare field. It provides information specific to healthcare, as well as general background resources to understand ageing  as a whole within society. 

Ageing, on the biological level, results from the impact of the accumulation of a wide variety of molecular and cellular damage over time. This leads to a gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity, a growing risk of disease and ultimately death. These changes are neither linear nor consistent, and they are only loosely associated with a person’s age in years. The diversity seen in older age is not random. Beyond biological changes, ageing is often associated with other life transitions such as retirement, relocation to more appropriate housing and the death of friends and partners. (Source: WHO)

Ageism refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age. (Source: WHO)

Source | Stanford