Ageism Awareness Day 2021 Video

On October 1st, Australia marked its very first Ageism Awareness Day, to coincide with the International Day of Older Persons.

To launch this very special occasion, the EveryAGE Counts campaign held a virtual morning tea with a range of special guest speakers including EveryAGE Counts campaign co chair Robert Tickner AO, campaign director and co chair Dr Marlene Krasovitsky, Age Discrimination Commissioner The Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO and singer/actor Monica Trapaga. 

The morning tea was attended by over 400 Australians who listened to our guest speakers talk about the damaging impacts of ageism and what we all can do to help end it.

As well as speakers, Monica Trapaga treated guests to a very special performance which you can watch above. 

The morning tea was held at the same time new research by EveryAGE Counts showed that nearly half of all Australians over-50 experienced ageism in the past year, but only one in five of them took any action in response,

Findings of the research include:

• 45 per cent of Australians over 50 say they have experienced ageism in the past year, and 52 per cent of all Australians say they have witnessed ageism in the past year
• 82 per cent of older Australians who experienced ageism say they did not take any action in response.

Of these:

• 27 per cent said it was because it was hard to prove
• 24 per cent said it was because they didn't know how to respond
• 22 per cent said was because they were not sure if it was really ageism
• 9 per cent said they "didn't know what my options were

The following video was launched as part of the Ageism Awareness Day activities.