Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

C r e a t i n g L e a d e r s i n O T

Resisting Ageism and

Exercising Senior

Citizenship Through

Social Media

Barry Trentham PhD

Sheila Neysmith PhD

CARE WATCH

Acknowledgements

Care Watch Co-researchers

Charlotte Mayer, Mary Ann Chang, Josephine

Grayson, Bea Levis, Barbara Kilburn, Dick Moore,

Fern Teplitsky, Susan Thorning

Dr. Sheila Neysmith-Factor-Inwentash Faculty of

Social Work, U of T

Research Students:

Sandra Sokoloff, Amie Tsang, Stephanie Burdzy,

Anahita Jabbari

Dr. Alex Mihailidis, OS & OT, University of Toronto

Changing social venues for

advocacy

Social media—venues where ideas are shared:

coffee houses

print news media

radio, television

web-sites

One-way communication

public forums

interactive web-based

blogs, Twitter, Facebook (Standage, 2013)

Citizenship

“Canadians define “citizenship” as more than

having a passport, obeying the law and paying

taxes. These are widely seen as key aspects of

citizenship, but just as important are being active

participants in one’s community, helping others

and accepting differences”.

- Institute for Canadian Citizenship (2012)

“When did we take the

‘citizen’ out of senior

citizen? What does it

mean when we do not see

ourselves as citizens?”

Bea Levis (Care Watch Member)

Ontario Gerontology Association

Award acceptance speech 2012

7

What is ageism?

Stereotyping on the basis of age Discrimination

“a socially constructed way of thinking about older

persons based on negative attitudes and stereotypes

about aging”

“a tendency to structure society based on an

assumption that everyone is young, thereby failing to

respond appropriately to the real needs of older

persons.” (Ontario Human Rights Commission)

Ageism is about disadvantage

Stems from deprivation of power, respect

and basic human rights (Townsend, 2006).

Impedes senior citizens’ capacity to engage

in citizenship processes (Neysmith &

Reitsma-Street, 2000).

Learning about resisting ageism

through participatory action research

PAR is an “inquiry with the participation of

those affected by an issue for the purpose of

education and action for effecting change”

(Green et al.’s, 1995, p.4).

Participants as co-researchers

Care Watch PAR process

Ongoing cycles of action, reflection, action

toward change

Documentation of processes, outcomes and

reflective notes

Analyzed collectively based on principles of

constructivism and critical theory

Learnings disseminated widely to seniors

groups, policy makers, academia

Initial PAR questions

How does a group of senior citizen advocates

resist ageism in their attempts to bring about

change and exercise their role as senior citizens?

What strategies and technologies (e.g., web-based

social media tools) are used by a group of seniors to

engage other groups of older persons from diverse

communities in the policy change process?

Overarching PAR reflection

themes

Naming, Exposing and Resisting Ageism

Unpacking ageism

Pervasiveness of ageism

Internalized ageism

Passing

Naming ourselves as senior citizens

Importance of language and learning from other rights movements

Competing demands: Energy and time for advocacy work

senior citizens advocates are busy people!

Social media: exclusionary or a tool for change

Naming, Exposing and Resisting:

Participatory Actions

Political forums, letter writing, networking,

conference presentations

Social media

Social media: A game changer

The advocacy game has changed and so:

How do we use social media, a venue often

viewed by senior citizens as exclusionary, to

resist ageism?

Barriers to social media for senior

citizens

Privacy concerns

Perceived relevance

Cost and access

Language/knowledge barriers

Designed for younger people

Sustainability- practice, practice, practice

Organizational barriers/supports (Trentham, Sokoloff, Tsang & Neysmith, 2015)

Responding to barriers:

collaboration, information, support

Resisting ageism through social

media

Written materials e.g. flyers, brochures

Web-site http://carewatchtoronto.org/

Blog clips http://carewatch.tumblr.com/

Twitter clips https://twitter.com/CareWatchON

You-tube video clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWSy5MoCx

0

Lessons learned

Know your social media audience CW expanded target audience beyond decision makers and

media to boomers

Make ageing and ageism an issue for everyone

Build Facebook profile

Organizational structures Reinforcements needed in learning new technology

Buddy supports

Organizational goad

Engage younger volunteers

Resources

Need to connect mediums e.g., Twitter-blog-web-site

Broaden collaborations

Ongoing advocacy

Presentation on ageism to Ontario’s Senior

Secretariat

Development of a broader collaborative

network

Anti-Ageism Network-provincial focus

Development of social media training manual

for senior citizens advocates

Creative-arts/media to raise awareness

An occupational perspective

Senior citizenship as a socially valued occupational

role

Power of language for senior citizens naming

themselves accordingly

Advocacy as a component

Ageism blocks occupational potential with respect to

senior citizens exercising their citizenship

Ability to use on-line social media as an occupation

in itself and that may need to be “enabled”

References Carney, G. (2010). Citizenship and structured dependency: the implications

of policy design for senior political power. Ageing & Society 30 (2 ), 229-251.

Green, L., Georges, A., Daniel, M., Frankish, D. et al. (1995). Study of

participatory research in health promotion: Review and recommendation of the development

of participatory research in health promotion in Canada. University of British Columbia:

Institute for Health Promotion Research.

Institute for Canadian Citizenship- see https://www.icc-icc.ca/en/

Neysmith, S. & Reitsma-Street, M. (2000). Valuing unpaid labour in the third sector: The

case of community resource centres. Canadian Public Policy. 26 (3), 331-346.

Ontario Human Rights Commission- see http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en

Townsend, P. (2006). Policies for the Aged in the 21st century: More ‘ structured

dependency' or the realization of human rights? Ageing and Society 26 (2), 161-175.

Trentham, B., Sokoloff, S., Tsang, A., & Neysmith, S. (2015). Social media and senior citizen

advocacy: an inclusive tool to resist ageism? Politics,groups and identities. Available at:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2015.1050411