[Ageism "in the mind" as a risk factor for suicidal ideation in old age].

Abstract

This article systematically analyzes suicidal ideation in old age from the perspective of traditional age-related ideas, evaluations and expectations. The synthesis of empirical evidence from different research areas provides preliminary evidence that ageism "in the mind" reduces the will to live in old age and thus represents a suicide risk for the individual. This effect is caused by a culturally deeply rooted social climate of old age, according to which life in old age tends to be seen as a phase of deficit and lack of productivity, and according to which older people tend to be expected to socially withdraw and not become a burden. If healthcare professionals are not sufficiently qualified in gerontology, they are guided in their work by this age bias, which, in the worst case, is expressed in ignorance and passivity towards suicidal crises in older people. A relevant risk factor is that in old age the ageism internalized by individuals over the course of their lives is directed against themselves. The analysis underlines a contextualist understanding of suicidal ideation beyond a widespread, oversimplistic view as an understandable reaction to "old age" or a narrow psychiatric assessment as "old age depression". At the same time, ageist tendencies in the public discourse are questioned, according to which suicidal ideation in old age is a rational phenomenon that is justified in view of the horrors of old age and is also a less serious phenomenon for the social environment. The rhetoric of assisted suicide as an act of self-determination and self-decision in favor of society is also questioned.