Rights and Responsibilities of Older Persons

Agism, characterized by discrimination and alienation and the profound changes that it has brought in the status and needs of persons sixty-five years and over in American society, demands our interest and concern. These changes, and today's prevailing attitudes toward the elderly, tend to move-almost push-them onto the edges of the mainstream of society's life. The dehumanizing and antisocial forces of discrimination and alienation are widespread among all people today, but as experienced by those of the later decades of life, these elements are escalated.

Policy Statement and Recommendations Adopted by the 185th General Assembly (1973) of The United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.