Features of medicalizing behavior towards the elderly in interactions with doctors and social workers
Research Article
How to Cite
Galkin K.A. Features of medicalizing behavior towards the elderly in interactions with doctors and social workers. Humanities of the South of Russia. 2023. Vol. 12. No. 2. P. 14-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2023.2.1 (in Russ.).
Abstract
Objective of the study is to consider the transformation of attitudes towards old age and old age, as well as to rethink the policy of active longevity, which is actively going on after the pandemic, aspects that slow down the perception of aging as a productive time and a time of opportunity deserve special attention. Here we can highlight the issue of the medicalization of aging and old age in general, which is present both at the global and intercountry levels, and at the local level.
The methodological basis of the research. In this article, we consider the medicalization of aging within the framework of everyday practices of interaction of elderly people with secondary medical personnel, doctors and social workers. Medicalization is interpreted as models of interaction based on negative gerontostereotypes, resulting in communication and interaction with the elderly as a special group of the population in need of constant assistance and protection from representatives of medicine and social services. Thus, the medicalizing behavior is based on ideas about the infirmity of the elderly, their lack of opportunities for activity.
And also based on the analysis of interviews with elderly residents of the city of federal significance (St. Petersburg), medical professionals with secondary and higher education, as well as social workers.
Research results. The article shows that elderly people most often experience the negative effect of medicalization from the side of nursing staff and doctors. These interactions are based on the idea of the inability of the elderly to make independent decisions, as well as the need for constant care of their health, their constant treatment. Meanwhile, the model of care that medializes older people, which is broadcast by social workers, on the contrary, supports older people, and such behavior is considered by medical professionals as respectful. Also in the study, we have shown that medicalization is of great importance in the lives of older people and affects all areas of their lives: first of all, it does not contribute to their activity and labeling their age as a time of activity and opportunities, creating ageist stereotypes about old age and infirmity, quite popular in Russian reality.
Prospects of the study. The analysis of the features of medicalization in the context of communication of elderly people with medical personnel, doctors and social workers opens up broad prospects in the study of everyday manifestations of ageism. Further studies of medicalization and medicalizing behavior will contribute to understanding the limitations and issues of discrimination against older people, as well as limiting factors that slow down the development of active longevity based solely on biological and medical criteria for considering old age.
Keywords:
older people, medicalization of age, aging, everyday life of the older, the effect of medicalization
References
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Walker A. A. (2002) Strategy for active ageing // International social security review. – Vol. 55. – No. 1. – Pp. 121-139.
Wallace S.P. (2020) Health policy for the elderly / S. P. Wallace, C. L. Estes // Growing old in America. – Routledge. – Pp. 569-588.
Zola I. K. (2017) The medicalization of aging and disability / I. K. Zola // The Elderly. – Routledge. – Pp. 37-53.
Grigorieva I. (2020) The concept of active aging in Europe and Russia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic / I. Grigorieva, E. Bogdanova // Laboratory: Journal of Social Research. – No. 2. – Pp. 187-211. – DOI 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-2-187-211.
Miklyaeva A. V. (2018) Infantilization of the elderly in everyday interaction: towards the formulation of the problem / A. V. Miklyaeva // Journal of Social Policy Research. – Vol. 16. – No. 1. – Pp. 109-124. – DOI 10.17323/727-0634-2018-16-1-109-124.
Mikhel D. V. (2011) Medicalization as a social phenomenon / D. V. Mikhel // Bulletin of the Saratov State Technical University. – Vol. 4. – No. 2(60). – Pp. 256-263.
Svetlichnaya T. G. (2017) Theoretical and conceptual approaches and results of empirical study of the phenomenon of medicalization (literature review) / T. G. Svetlichnaya, E. A. Smirnova // Logos et Praxis. – Vol. 16. – No. 3. – Pp. 145-160. – DOI 10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2017.3.17.
Temkina A.A. (2014) Medicalization of reproduction and childbirth: the struggle for control / A. A. Temkina // Journal of Social Policy Research. – Vol. 12. – No. 3. – Pp. 321-336.
Binney E.A. (1990) Medicalization, public policy and the elderly: Social services in jeopardy? / E. A. Binney, C. L. Estes, S. R. Ingman // Social Science & Medicine. – Vol. 30. – No. 7. – Pp. 761-771.
Broom D. H. (1996) Medicalisation reconsidered: toward a collaborative approach to care / D. H. Broom, R. V. Woodward // Sociology of Health & Illness. – Vol. 18. – No. 3. – Pp. 357-378.
Busfield J. (2017) The concept of medicalisation reassessed / J. Busfield // Sociology of Health & Illness. – Vol. 39. – No. 5. – Pp. 759-774.
Conrad P. (1992) Medicalization and social control / P. Conrad // Annual review of Sociology. – Vol. 18. – No. 1. – Pp. 209-232.
Conrad P. (2013) Medicalization: changing contours, characteristics, and contexts / P. Conrad // Medical sociology on the move: new directions in theory. – Pp. 195-214.
Conrad P. (2005) The shifting engines of medicalization / P. Conrad // Journal of health and social behavior. – Vol. 46. – No. 1. – Pp. 3-14.
Conrad P. (1980) Looking at levels of medicalization: a comment on Strong's critique of the thesis. / P. Conrad, J. W. Schneider // Social Science & Medicine. Part A: Medical Psychology & Medical Sociology.– Vol. 14. – No. 1. – Pp. 75-79.
Coveney C. (2011) The sociology of cognitive enhancement: Medicalisation and beyond / C. Coveney, J. Gabe, S. Williams // Health Sociology Review. – Vol. 20. – No. 4. – Pp. 381-393.
Ebrahim S. (2002) The medicalisation of old age: Should be encouraged / S. Ebrahim // BMJ. – Vol. 324. – No. 7342. – Pp. 861-863.
Greil A. L. (2020) Degrees of medicalization: The case of infertility health-seeking / A. L. Greil et al. // The Sociological Quarterly. – Vol. 61. – No. 2. – Pp. 347-365.
Heath I. (2002) Long term care for older people: increasing pressure for change / I. Heath // BMJ. – Vol. 324. – No. 7353. – Pp. 1534-1535.
Petretto D. R. (2020) Ageing and COVID-19: what is the role for elderly people? / D. R. Petretto, R. Pili // Geriatrics. – Vol. 5. – No. 2. – Pp. 25.
Petrina S. (2006) The medicalization of education: a historiographic synthesis / S. Petrina // History of Education Quarterly. – Vol. 46. – No. 4. – Pp. 503-531.
Powell J. (2019) Rethinking Community, Medicalization, Social and Health Care: A Foucauldian Analysis’ / J. Powell // Archives of Community and Family Medicine. – Vol. 2. – No. 2. – Pp. 27-35.
Soldo B. J. (1994) Care of the elderly: Division of labor among the family, market, and state / B. J. Soldo, V. A. Freedman // Demography of aging. – Pp. 195-216.
Walker A. A. (2002) Strategy for active ageing // International social security review. – Vol. 55. – No. 1. – Pp. 121-139.
Wallace S.P. (2020) Health policy for the elderly / S. P. Wallace, C. L. Estes // Growing old in America. – Routledge. – Pp. 569-588.
Zola I. K. (2017) The medicalization of aging and disability / I. K. Zola // The Elderly. – Routledge. – Pp. 37-53.
Article
Received: 09.02.2023
Accepted: 25.04.2023
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Galkin, K. A. (2023). Features of medicalizing behavior towards the elderly in interactions with doctors and social workers. Humanities of the South of Russia, 12(2), 14-27. https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2023.2.1
Section
SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN MODERN SOCIETY
