Ageism has been thrust into the spotlight after Silver Voices, an older people’s organisation, lodged a formal complaint to the human rights watchdog over alleged age discrimination in the NHS over cancer screening, and a national campaign to combat widespread ageism was launched.
Ageing without limits: cancer screening
The Centre for Ageing Better charity has launched the ‘Age Without Limits’ drive to counter age discrimination that, according to its own research, over half of adults over 50 have suffered within the past year. Meanwhile, Silver Voices has alleged to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that there are arbitrary age limits for access to automatic cancer screening services.
Silver Voices acted after meeting senior officials at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), challenging them to produce evidence that upper age limits for automatic screening conformed to the requirements of age discrimination legislation. In a Silver Voices briefing email sent to the author on 13 January 2023, they also requested details of any equalities impact studies carried out before the age limits were introduced.
According to Silver Voices, “neither was forthcoming”. Instead, the DHSC issued “a garbled official statement” arguing that “there is no evidence to indicate that there would not be more harm than good in continuing with automatic screening beyond the age limits”.
Silver Voices concluded that “they do not specify what ‘harm’ they are talking about, but it appears to hinge around the stress of unnecessary testing (which is not, of course, age-related). Given the extreme harm caused if a cancer is not caught early, this seems a pathetic argument.”
Breaching equalities legislation?
Silver Voices also claimed to the EHRC that the DHSC is breaching equalities legislation with these policies. The complaint is currently being examined by the legal and regulatory teams at the EHRC and may take some weeks to determine.
“In our view, this is an important case which exemplifies the casual and systemic age discrimination which exists in the NHS. As the response to the pandemic showed, at least initially, older lives are not valued as highly as those of working adults and children,” say Silver Voices.
Cancer screenings are only routinely offered up to certain age limits. For example, cervical cancer screening is offered up to the age of 64, breast cancer screening up to 71 and bowel cancer screening up to 74. However, “individuals can request screenings beyond these age limits”.
Over half suffer age discrimination
In addition to the cancer screening example, data compiled by The Centre for Ageing Better reveals that half of adults aged over 50 in England have experienced age discrimination in the last year. This happened most commonly in work (37%), followed by social media and television, movies or news reports (32%), and as a consumer (32%).
For people aged over 70, age discrimination was most keenly felt on social media, television, movies or news reports (44%), as a consumer (43%) and in health or social care settings (29%).
The data also reveals that only three in ten members of the public think treatment of older people is good. More older people are likely to take anti-depressants for mental health issues and one in three people over 50 believes they have been turned down for a job because of their age.
Campaign to challenge how we think
With a third of people holding ageist beliefs, and many perhaps not even realising that they do, the campaign will be calling on the nation to change the way we think about ageing for the benefit of everyone.
The campaign argues that ageism, whilst often dismissed as being harmless, is actually detrimental to the lives of millions of people, impacting their opportunities, livelihoods, health and mental wellbeing. This has a knock-on effect on productivity and the economy. As the population is rapidly ageing, ageism has the potential to cause significant harm to society in the future.
The three-year campaign will use advertising, PR and social media to spark debate and conversation about what ageism is and to challenge the way we all think about ageing. A new website will provide information, tools and resources. Every year, there will be an opportunity for individuals, organisations and communities across England to join Age Without Limits in a National Day of Action.
Hidden in plain sight
Dr Carole Easton, Chief Executive for the Centre for Ageing Better, says: “Ageism is the prejudice that’s hidden in plain sight. We see and hear casual ageism every day, it’s embedded in our society and even accepted as normal by many of us who are older.”
“Ageism scars lives,” she continues, “it is often dismissed as being harmless, but if you look at the research, or speak to people whose lives have been affected by ageism, you will soon realise ageist ideas or beliefs can be incredibly damaging for us as individuals and for wider society. That is why we are launching this campaign to get the nation thinking differently about ageing, for the benefit of us all as we grow older.”
Since April 2023, the Centre for Ageing Better has joined 70 organisations in calling for the appointment of a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing to root out, tackle and prevent age discrimination.
