Ways companies or even people you may know infantilize Seniors?

VintageBetter

VintageBetter

Senior Member

infantilize​

1: to make or keep infantile

2: to treat as if infantile

Example: Yesterday I was looking at a Famous Company's online ordering platform for benefits covered by their OTC plan and I saw puzzles. I don't mean 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. I mean 20 to 30 pieces, simple puzzles with large pieces. They were equivalent to puzzles for Kindergartners in difficulty.

Granted, these might be for stroke survivors who have limited use of hands and arms, or who are re-learning how to speak. I understand they are with the rehabilitation supplies because they are for rehabilitation. However, the name of the puzzle company is "KeepingBusy".

I don't have dementia and I've never personally known anyone with Alzheimer's. Maybe these are great for those customers? IDK. When people have dementia do they lose their ability to read, or listen to music? Can they still be trusted to garden? Can they learn how to paint with watercolors? Sew? Knit and crochet? Do ceramics?

But this is a change in marketing that has been obvious to me as I have aged: the products marketed to Seniors tend to dwell on us entering a carefree "Second Childhood", with the limited mental ability of children too. That's infantilization and wow, it is noticeable to me in much of the advertising aimed at us.
 

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VintageBetter said:
But this is a change in marketing that has been obvious to me as I have aged: the products marketed to Seniors tend to dwell on us entering a carefree "Second Childhood", with the limited mental ability of children too. That's infantilization and wow, it is noticeable to me in much of the advertising aimed at us.
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I don't see this as new, but as the same way we treated our parents and grandparents.

There is a local senior residence that advertises on TV. They have residents continuing to play 'Connect Four' after the puzzle is already won. Gives me chills seeing these 'oldsters' playing a young child's game and not even correctly.

I think we have treated the old with disrespect for some time now, it's our culture to de-value the old and started with the 'invention' of nursing homes, where the guilt lies in our parents' generation.
 
IDK - I always treated my parents as if they were grown adults, capable of making their own choices. My dad, especially, made some choices that hastened his death from cancer and what could I do about it? I offered to help him move back to my state, even told him he could stay with me until he found is own place, but he saw that as impossible. Yes, it would have been difficult on both of us, but not impossible.

So he made his choice to stick with the abysmal care from his tiny town doctors instead of letting me or other family members facilitate him getting better care, even better care in his state that was 150 miles away, and he died with his cancer basically untreated.

This was a long time ago and medical care was much, much worse then. The system was designed to kill people even more in the old days than it is now.

But that's what I mean - no one took over his life and treated him like a child. Same with my mom. I disagreed with her end-of-life choices mightily and regularly, and I saw how my siblings took advantage of her and she could not see that, I guess. They very much infantilized her, IMO.

What I am saying on a MACRO basis is that, if the system is set up to PERCEIVE us all as babies, does the system always win? Are we swimming upstream to be heard from now until death?
 

I agree that sometimes seniors are infantalized but I've been surrounded by seniors suffering from Alzheimers or some other kind of dementia all my life. Maybe since I come from long-lived stock on both sides and therefore they all lived long enough to get it? Because they say if you live long enough, you will get some kind of dementia since it appears that the human brain has a "sell by" date.

Anyway, since Alzheimers or other dementia is more prevalent than earlier realized, that's a reason for some of the infantalizing?
 
officerripley said:
I agree that sometimes seniors are infantalized but I've been surrounded by seniors suffering from Alzheimers or some other kind of dementia all my life. Maybe since I come from long-lived stock on both sides and therefore they all lived long enough to get it? Because they say if you live long enough, you will get some kind of dementia since it appears that the human brain has a "sell by" date.

Anyway, since Alzheimers or other dementia is more prevalent than earlier realized, that's a reason for some of the infantalizing?
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Not really. I have worked with Alzheimer patients. Maybe they can't vocalize it but it really cranks many of them off. They get angry ad combative. They have memory problems but they aren't children.
 
debodun said:
After a church service I saw an elderly woman that seemed to be struggling to get her coat on. I didn't see her husband nearby, so I went over and held the garment so she could slip her arms into it. Instead of thanking me, she glared at me like I did something horrendous. Go figure.
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That was very kind of you.
Sometimes we donā€™t get the response we deserve.
 
My Mom had dementia and I donā€™t think she could have even handled the 30 piece puzzle as she could not remember what happened 5 minutes previously. That is just the unfortunate way it is with advanced dementia. I hope to find a way to avoid my Momā€™s unfortunate situation in the nursing home, both for my sake and my family memberā€™s sake.

But for folks who are simply a bit older with only minor loss of short term memory (me), treating me like some sort of imbecile is wrong. There was a time when the wisdom of the aged was valued.
 
VintageBetter said:

infantilize​

1: to make or keep infantile

2: to treat as if infantile

Example: Yesterday I was looking at a Famous Company's online ordering platform for benefits covered by their OTC plan and I saw puzzles. I don't mean 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. I mean 20 to 30 pieces, simple puzzles with large pieces. They were equivalent to puzzles for Kindergartners in difficulty.

Granted, these might be for stroke survivors who have limited use of hands and arms, or who are re-learning how to speak. I understand they are with the rehabilitation supplies because they are for rehabilitation. However, the name of the puzzle company is "KeepingBusy".

I don't have dementia and I've never personally known anyone with Alzheimer's. Maybe these are great for those customers? IDK. When people have dementia do they lose their ability to read, or listen to music? Can they still be trusted to garden? Can they learn how to paint with watercolors? Sew? Knit and crochet? Do ceramics?

But this is a change in marketing that has been obvious to me as I have aged: the products marketed to Seniors tend to dwell on us entering a carefree "Second Childhood", with the limited mental ability of children too. That's infantilization and wow, it is noticeable to me in much of the advertising aimed at us.
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Why think these games are being marketed to you? Isn't it more likely they're being marketed to those who need them, i.e., families of seniors (and other adults) who cannot master adult level games? I'm sure you wouldn't begrudge others the fun of games on a level they can enjoy.

The Keeping Busy website explains who they are and what they offer. As the daughter of a woman who had vascular dementia in her late years, and a DIL of a man who had early Alzheimers when he died, I salute this company for coming up with fresh options for seniors and other adults of limited congitive ablilties.

Edited to add, this is a link to the Keeping Busy website: Our Story
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
That was very kind of you.
Sometimes we donā€™t get the response we deserve.
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I wasn't looking for praise or thanks, but even a smile would have sufficed. She may have felt that was her husband's job (he may have gone out to warm up the car for her), not mine and my helping her may have indicated I noticed her disability (I'm just guessing).
 
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debodun said:
I wasn't looking for praise or thanks, but even a smile would have sufficed.
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Exactly. Some type of acknowledgment that you were doing a kind thing. I get it .
The silver lining is, that YOU know you were doing a good thing. People who may have saw you know that you were doing a good thing. You can smile knowing you did a kind thing. Thats acknowledging your own kindness. You are a kind person. Smile. šŸ˜ƒ
 
debodun said:
I wasn't looking for praise or thanks, but even a smile would have sufficed. She may have felt that was her husband's job, not mine and my helping her may have indicated I saw her disability (I'm just guessing). He may have gone out to warm up thw car for her.
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Maybe next time do the polite thing and ask "may I help?"
 
oldaunt said:
Almost every health professional, other than the actual doctors. They talk to you in these high little voices and call you pet names, and just seem to forget you have an actual brain. I wouldn't even talk to my dog like that, let alone an adult.
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I am a health professional, and heaven help me if I ever talked to any patient such as you just described. Most of us are taught never to do this as people who suffer dementia or Alzheimer's do realize this behavior. Usually, they will just walk away from anyone who does this.
 
VintageBetter said:
I don't have dementia and I've never personally known anyone with Alzheimer's. Maybe these are great for those customers? IDK. When people have dementia do they lose their ability to read, or listen to music? Can they still be trusted to garden? Can they learn how to paint with watercolors? Sew? Knit and crochet? Do ceramics?

But this is a change in marketing that has been obvious to me as I have aged: the products marketed to Seniors tend to dwell on us entering a carefree "Second Childhood", with the limited mental ability of children too. That's infantilization and wow, it is noticeable to me in much of the advertising aimed at us.
Click to expand...
People with dementia mainly have memory issues. With advanced dementia, they lose their ability to reason as well, and they can be delusional and very fearful. But they don't necessarily lose their ability to read or garden or paint or any of the things they could do before. Stroke patients can lose those abilities, but dementia patients don't. They might completely lose interest in them, though.

But I focused on where you mentioned "listening to music" and I remembered an experiment conducted several years ago where they put headphones on senior care-home patients with various stages of dementia that played music from their era, and they recorded their reactions.

Some of these patients were in wheelchairs, non-communicative and practically vegetative, but when they heard that music their eyes came alive like they suddenly recognized a dear old friend, and some of them sang, some danced or conducted the music, some laughed or started telling stories from the good ol' days - there were all sorts of positive reactions.
 
StarSong said:
I don't think holding the door for someone would be considered anything other than a non-judgmental social grace.
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Yes. Thereā€™s no touching of any sort. Being touched without consent can be somewhat intrusive. I used to have people come up to me to ask if my braids were real and they ā€˜d be touching them. When Iā€™d visit my parents in the nursing home one guy kept trying to pull them from my scull. I wasnā€™t impressed but was on my best behaviour.
 
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Lewkat said:
I am a health professional, and heaven help me if I ever talked to any patient such as you just described. Most of us are taught never to do this as people who suffer dementia or Alzheimer's do realize this behavior. Usually, they will just walk away from anyone who does this.
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Absolutely, @Lewkat When I go to a new personā€™s home or to the hospital, even if they are not vocal, I ask them or the family how they like to be addressed or default to Mr. Smith or Ms/Mrs Smith if thereā€™s no one there to answer.
 
Lewkat said:
I am a health professional, and heaven help me if I ever talked to any patient such as you just described. Most of us are taught never to do this as people who suffer dementia or Alzheimer's do realize this behavior. Usually, they will just walk away from anyone who does this.
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Every doc's nurse, every rehab person, every hospital tech I have come into contact in the past 10 years here does this. I want to smack them at times. I have actually told some "I am not your sweetie or honey."
 
oldaunt said:
Holding a door is cool. You don't touch anyone or their things.
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Yes. I came to that conclusion. Iā€™ve done that and have been given that evil glare. To be honest, itā€™s a natural reaction for me. With the way people are these days, I dont make direct eye contact with anyone unless Iā€™m talking to them. Iā€™m safer that way. Lol.
 
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