COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria are proud to rally with EveryAGE Counts, Australia’s national coalition of organisations against ageism, to mark Ageism Awareness Day on 9 October.
Our organisations will be taking to social media to spread awareness of Ageism Awareness Day 2024, reminding our supporters, members, and colleagues that we all have a part to play in combating ageism.
“Ageism is the discrimination and mistreatment of people solely because of their age, and addressing ageist issues is quite frankly at the heart of each and every one of our advocacy initiatives,” said COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria CEO, Ben Rogers.
“Victoria is getting older, yet we continue to adopt an attitude around age that often punishes older Victorians. This means more and more people are at risk of being harmed, both physically and emotionally, through careless and blatant acts of ageism,” Mr Rogers continued. “We need to tackle these negative attitudes head on, and work to support and empower those within our increasingly ageing population.”
“Ageism is at the core of elder abuse — it is a form of discrimination that can result in terrible outcomes for older people,” added Avital Kamil, the Manager and Principal Lawyer of Seniors Rights Victoria. “Elder abuse is a pernicious and underreported form of family violence, which one in six older Australians are expected to experience this year. We received over 12,000 calls to our Helpline last year, showing that there are so many people out there who are suffering the consequences of ageism.
“Addressing ageism is a proactive way that we can make society more welcoming to older Victorians, and potentially prevent members of our community from the devastating impacts of elder abuse.”
To help spread this worthy message, we have prepared four unique social media tiles that we encourage our supporters and members to use on 9 October 2024.
To use a social media tile, right-click the tile of your choice and select Save Image As to store on your computer or smartphone. Then, share on your social media network of choice and encourage conversations that speak out against ageism.
Ageism Awareness Day follows the United Nations International Day of Older People (1 October) and takes place during the October 2024 Victorian Seniors Festival.