Defending the aged
Sir: Tabitha Troughton Match out, there's a granny about', 15 April) seeks to replace one set of tendentious nonsense with another. Simply because she knows half a dozen anecdotes (I know a lot more) about aggression in old people, she should not have us believe that most of those over 65 are violent, abusive, grasping and hypo- critical.
About 95 per cent of people over 65 in this country live in their own homes. Scien- tific surveys — i.e., not journalistic anec- dotes — have repeatedly shown that many (not all) live in poverty, and many (not all) are subject to verbal, financial and physical abuse. National statistics reveal year after year that the elderly commit a minute pro- portion of total crime in the United King- dom, including those of violence.
The truth is you don't change simply by passing 65. Old people are like us all: some good; some bad; and some in between. Insofar as one may generalise at all, old people want to be accorded the same treat- ment and respect as the rest of us; that is to say not to be regarded as better or worse than Tabitha Troughton.
Robin Jacoby
University of Oxford, Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Rivendale Assessment Centre, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
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