Dr. Nat O'Connor:

The Deputy referred to the global report on ageism published last year by the WHO. It surveyed 55,000 people around the world, including across Europe, and found age prejudice or age discrimination is very common and occurs in many different ways. That is the root issue the training has to address. As a society, there can be obvious age discrimination, but there is also an internalisation of age discrimination, where people are ageist towards themselves, if one likes, and reduce their own expectations of what they are allowed to do, particularly in a care environment. As such, it is very important the care is designed to empower the person to live as independently as possible. Quite a sophisticated level of training is needed. Of course, the fast turnover of staff, as described by other witnesses, means it can be difficult to build up staff training. One can inculcate those values among staff only to see the staff leave again. It is a challenge as part of the training piece.