Consensual Sex In Elderly Care Homes – Ageism And Safety Concerns

Regardless of what one thinks about sex outside marriage, this issue is certainly not going to go away in the near and far future as long as the elderly are institutionalized and/or live in residential care facilities.

From the 25 June 2012 Medical News Today article

An article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics reveals that elderly care home residents are often needlessly denied consensual sex because of concerns regarding safety and ageism. 

Researchers from the Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care state that even though elderly people, including those with early stage dementia, often still enjoy a sexual relationship in their own homes, but once they move into residential care, a sexual relationship is often frowned upon.

The researchers say that factors, such as safety fears, insufficient privacy, concerns about duty of care, anxieties about potential repercussions from relatives, and ageism often take away people’s “basic human right”, standing in the way of “a normal and healthy part of ageing.” ….

Related articles

• Care home patients with dementia being ‘denied sex’ (independent.co.uk)
• Safety fears and agism denying care home residents right to consensual sex (eurekalert.org)
• Nursing Homes Aren’t Letting Old People Have Enough Sex [Aging] (jezebel.com)
• Care centers deny elderly the right to sex: medical journal (rawstory.com)
• Dementia patients’ desires left in the cold (abc.net.au)