Structural Ageism is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.
It is defined as prejudice or discrimination against a person based on their age, and can occur in a number of ways from internalised through to structural.
We have defined structural ageism against older people as the sum effect of policies that negatively impact older people as well as the absence of policies which consider older people, causing them to be deprioritized in policy settings.
In early 2024, we undertook an analysis of key strategic documents across government entities that most impact the lives of older people to see how visible older people were at this level.
The following document was sent out to each of the assessed entities in December 2024 in order to prompt conversation about the visibility of older people in policy and how best to combat structural ageism.