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.

On Tuesday June 29^th, EveryAGE Counts held a webinar examining some of the latest research on the value of fully including older workers in a diverse, multi-generational workforce.

Marlene Krasovitsky, Co-chair and Director of the EveryAGE Counts campaign, spoke to the Law Society Journal for their article on age discrimination, which we've cross-posted below. It's a longer read than we usually post here, but well worth reading through! 

"[My GP] doesn’t care less [that] I have depression, heart attacks, chronic asthma, chronic arthritis and chronic spondylitis."

"I know my body pretty well. I have lived in it 72 years and this female doctor who had just met me, [told me she] knew better."

These are direct quotes from a new report produced by the Older Women's Network and Health Consumers NSW, reflecting the experiences of people who feel they are being treated differently in the health care system because of their age. 

What does that term ‘intersectionality’ mean and how is it relevant to a campaign on ageism?

None of us is one thing. None of us live our lives in one dimension. I don’t live my life just as a woman, or someone from a different cultural and language background, or just as an older person. I live my life as all these things…and more.

On 18 March, 2021 the World Health Organisation released the first Global Report on Ageism, and it’s a distressing read. In a stark reminder of prevalence of ageism, it provides evidence that 1 in 2 people worldwide are ageist. Half of the world’s population think and feel negatively about getting older, older people and this phase of life.

EveryAGE Counts’ senior policy advisor, Sue McGrath, shared her reflections on the issue of ‘Bringing Back the Joy’ in aged care, at LASA’s (Leading Aged Services Australia) March 2021 Forum, Aged Care Transformed – Getting from here to there. 

On International Women’s Day, Marlene Krasovitsky, Director of EveryAGE Counts, talks with Bich Cam Nguyen, Senior Victorian Australian of the Year.

In November 2020, our friends at the Elder Abuse Prevention Networks in the North and West region of Metropolitan Melbourne along with Merri Health hosted the Virtual Women’s Café – Celebrating the Wisdom and Resilience of Older Women.

The Elder Abuse Prevention Networks are part of the integrated model of care to strengthen elder abuse responses and support within Victorian health services, and consists of agencies and community organisations who meet regularly to work on key objectives such as developing interagency protocols and raising awareness of elder abuse.  

Try looking up ‘healthy ageing’, ‘ageing well’, ‘active ageing’, and ‘positive ageing’ in your search engine. You will find a treasure trove of literature, articles, programs and commentaries. You will find tips and suggestions about eating well, staying active, keeping connected, finding purpose and meaning, trying new things, staying positive. All of these are welcome and sound suggestions. All of them are focussed on individual choices and actions.

What about the context within which we age? We get older within a social context. How I age is of course, about me, my actions and my attitudes but it is also about others, their actions and attitudes towards me. Further, how I age goes beyond the personal and interpersonal to the structural – the access and opportunities I have, and have had, to education, secure housing, health care, work and financial security over my lifetime.