AGEISM The problem of defining people by their age I first came across the term ‘compassionate ageism’ in Betty Friedan’s book The Fountain of Age published in 1993 [i] . It remains one of a handful of my most treasured books, which have had a profound influence on both my thinking and professional practice. It captured my mind, but, more importantly, my soul. Here in its very personal pages is laid open her own ‘voyage of discovery into a different kind of ageing’. It is both deeply disturbing and yet inspirational. It challenged the very decline, dependency and sickness narrative currently dominating civic and civil society. If we define Compassionate Ageism as the belief that older adults are needy and deserve special policies to help them, we are at risk of ‘othering’, which can lead to, for example, the very corruption of care so exercising us in the field of safeguarding. In addition, it has the potential to reinforce paternalistic, patronising and disempowering ...