The Rights of Turning 80

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Now back to the mental health challenges of becoming 80, after a couple of column detours.

If it is not enough of a challenge to turn 80 from the biological standpoint, what if society was an obstacle, too? Well, ours is. These is significant ageism in the United States and many other countries that value material productivity more than health and happiness.

It was true of Argentina over 80 years ago. And according to “themarginalian,” posted by Maria Popova on December 14, 2025, there was once a possible solution, although a short-lived one. The change did not come from a geriatrician, but from someone in their 20s, someone who achieved political fame, later transmitted into a very popular play and film. Evita!

Growing up in rural Argentina, Eva Peron reported being upset by an elderly man who came to their house asking for help, seemingly humiliated. Not finding an adequate solution, she put together one herself, “The Rights of Old Age.” She presented them to her husband, the President, as well as the people, resulting in Constitutional Reform. She closed her speech with:

“Our aspirations seek to be realized even more profoundly, encompassing not only the vulnerable elderly of our society, but all the forgotten of the earth.”

Here are the rights of old age that were passed to help achieve those aspirations:

I. Right to Assistance

II. Right to Housing

III. Right to Nourishment

IV. Right to Clothing

V. Right to Physical Health Care

VI. Right to Moral Health Care

VII. Right to Recreation

VIII. Right to Work

IX. Right to Tranquility

X. Right to Respect

Most of these are briefly explained, but probably the most unusual one is VI: Right to Moral Health Care, which is explained with:

“Free exercise of spiritual expression, in accordance with morality and creed, must be ensured.”

However, like so many political reforms, this one died out when Juan Peron was overthrown 3 years later, well after Eva had died from cancer.

Nothing like these rights seemed to have happened since. Discrimination against older adults has continued and contributed to the term ageism being coined over 50 years ago, defined as¹: “Systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender.”

Ageism causes inequality wherever it exists. That inequality includes psychotherapy, justified that older adults were beyond treatment and that depression was a normal aspect of aging. Rather, it is ageism that connects and contributes to depression. Internalized ageism in older adults is associated with poor health.² Despite all of this negativity, the happiness of elders collectively increases from middle age in the United States, but with the caveat that we have not been a particularly happy country in recent decades.

At the end of the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, the advocacy group Gray Panthers emerged in the 1970s to fight against ageism. Working with Ralph Nader, they had some success in addressing nursing home problems. Since they and the American Association of Retired Persons still exist, along with large numbers of baby boomers, might there be some political clout possible now?

Psychologists are currently trying to make up for their prior attitudes.³ Psychiatrists have developed the growing subspecialty of geriatric psychiatry. The noted psychologist Becca Levy notes how different and more positively the elderly are treated in Japan. She concludes optimistically:

“We’re on the verge of a social movement to bring about a more age-just society.”

Hope so.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specializes in the social, cultural, ethical, spiritual, and religious aspects of psychiatry, and since 2012 is in retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekdays column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He has been an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physical burnout, and xenophobia, among other social justice causes, serving on many related local and national community and professional Boards. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Teaster PB, Giwa AO. Ageism as a source of global mental health inequity. AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(10):E765-770.

2. Allen JO, Solway E, Kirch M, et al. Experiences of everyday ageism and the health of older US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(6):e2217240.

3. Kirsten W. Ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Psychologists are working to change that. Monitor of Psychology. 2023;54(2):36.