A study of professional attitudes towards older people within an interprofessional context

Abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative study which considered the perceptions of differing groups of professionals, in the health and welfare field, about the needs of older people in the community, in order to comment on the potential for interprofessional collaboration in this field of work. A review of the literature demonstrated that a wide range of professionals were involved in this area of work and that their perceptions of need varied. Attitudes to older people were also shown to lead to discrimination against them and to affect perception of need and the article concentrates on this area of the study. Attitudes to older people and their needs were shown to be affected by professional background. A typology was devised to analyse the attitudes demonstrated by a group of different professionals working with older people in the community. In general, the older person was seen as passive by those interviewed and, although there was some reference to working in partnership with older clients, it was apparent that the relationship would continue to be unequal. Negative attitudes about older people also related to their potential for manipulating services and resisting change. There was little consensus about the training required for the assessment of older people in the community, although most agreed about the skills required for the work. The results of the study suggest that joint training, which is skills-based and confronts attitudes to older people, would increase interprofessional collaboration by improving understanding of the roles of others.

Key Words:

• Older people
• professional attitudes
• perception of need
• discrimination
• interprofessional collaboration
• qualitative study