Serving Aging Clients: Clinical Implications of Sex Role Stereotypes on the Communicatively Impaired Elderly

Abstract

Although generally, people in the geriatric population are more likely to have stereotypic notions about sex roles, many clinicians have sex-biased concepts that interfere with providing high-quality services to their aged clients. Clinicians need to be aware of all forms of oppression leading to disenfranchisement and realize that their elderly handicapped clients who are also women, racial minorities, or homosexuals suffer double or triple jeopardy. Awareness is a beginning, but awareness alone is not enough. Specific clinical strategies are presented in this article to serve as guidelines for providing the best possible intervention to elderly clients of both sexes.