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Danielle Brady and colleagues examine the phenomenon of infantilisation and its negative consequences for older people through deskilling and reduced confidence
Abstract
Infantilisation is the act of treating an individual in a way that denies their level of maturity by virtue of age or experience. The authors argue that through infantilisation older people, perhaps with cognitive impairments, can be left without a voice and arc unable to speak up against such treatment. Often their opinions on therapies and interventions are overlooked due to the challenging nature of engaging with such individuals, who often have difficulties communicating.
Key words
Infantilisation, older people, nursing care, person-centred care, malignant social psychology
What is infantilisation?
Infantilisation is the act of treating an individual in a way that denies their level of maturity by virtue of age or experience (Gresham, 1976).
It is the act of treating an adult in the same way you would a child. This can take many forms and when looking at the infantilisation of the elderly we need to appreciate that it is a multifaceted phenomenon. This means that it can include many different aspects such as language use and tone, actions, interactions, and environment.
For example it could be the use of the phrase 'good girl' or 'who's being a naughty boy?', it could be the use of age-inappropriate environments such as decorations normally seen in a nursery or the use of children's toys, it could just be the tone of voice that somebody uses such as 'baby talk' (Whitbourne et al, 1995), or it could be treating a person as though they are incapable of carrying out simple tasks and therefore threatening their independence.
All of these aspects need to be taken into account when examining the phenomenon of infantilisation.
Kitwood's (1990) theory of malignant social psychology highlights infantilisation as one damaging aspect that deprives an individual of their personhood leading to worsening of psychological and physical symptoms of illness.
Kitwood outlines ten aspects of malignant social psychology, which are: treachery, disempowerment, infantilisation, intimidation, labelling, stigmatisation, outpacing, invalidation, banishment and objectification.
Infantilisation is described as a more extreme and persistent form of disempowerment that sees things being done for older people despite their ability to do for themselves, which can...