geriatric, older, elderly?

There has been this concept that’s grown up over the last few years of advocacy..

I think its awful this age definition we’ve had, that’s happened right through my life… In my early years there was no concept of a teenager.. People are labelled entirely by their age.

We have the word geriatrics’, but older people are stigmatised, so we look for another one: care of the elderly, care of older people? Older? It starts with the Patient, the categorisation, you might as well say the prisoner when you talk about the patient, because for health and safety and legal reasons, as soon as you are admitted, your physical movements are constrained- you can’t go out.

extract from interview with Alison Creed, Retired