ABSTRACT
The phrase ‘older people’ is common place in social work, social care and health care for the good reason that it is less stigmatising than the alternatives. It is difficult to say precisely at what age a person becomes ‘older’ but that is the point: it is a relative designation that allows for flexibility of application and a great range of capacities and competences. As a result it is more inclusive and does not stigmatise the way the phrases ‘old people’ or ‘the elderly’ do. While one could say that in general the term applies to people of state pensionable age (for men at 65, women at 60) it usually refers to people older than that. As a rough rule of thumb, from the age of 70 onwards individuals may well be regarded as ‘older’ in certain dimensions of their life – as a parent or driver for example – without being considered so in other areas, such as consumer of health care, jazz musician, religious leader or judge. The different aspects of identity and functioning only differentially become ‘older’ as the person’s life course progresses.
