An elderly couple take a selfie on the Atlantic coast.

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SEBASTIEN SALOM GOMIS / SIPA

The coronavirus crisis has increased the risk of a "divide" between young people and seniors, which must be combated through education and awareness policies, pleaded the association "Les Petits frères des poor", this Tuesday, in a report.

This risk of "generational divide" feeds on "certain very painful positions for the elderly, who may have felt accused by the youngest looking for scapegoats" to the crisis, believes the association for the fight against isolation of seniors.

Seniors who feel “excluded” and “useless”

Conversely, some seniors may have shown "resentment", accusing the youngest of laxity in the application of barrier gestures, and of lacking solidarity towards them.

Faced with this risk, a "change of outlook on old age" is necessary, say the authors of the report.

Because even among seniors - who do not form a homogeneous category - many have "a very negative view of advancing age", perceived as a "shipwreck": some feel "excluded" and considered "useless" by their fellow citizens, they emphasize.

Through in-depth interviews, carried out with 100 seniors over the age of 60, including 45 residents in EHPAD, the portrait of a generation which has generally gone through painfully the health crisis and its successive confinements.

The difficulties seem to have been greater for people with low incomes or who were already marked by “cumulative vulnerabilities” before the crisis.

Seniors have suffered in particular from the deprivation of contact with their grandchildren and have retained the “underlying fear” that this deprivation will be perpetuated, and that they will thus become “strangers” in the eyes of their descendants.

"Raising awareness of benevolence"

The rules of distancing have also generated or increased among them "a feeling of mistrust towards others, especially in the public space".

In addition, some people interviewed said that they had not concretely observed "the outpouring of generosity and solidarity" towards the elderly, as the media have often reported.

"This movement of solidarity of the youngest, we will have to anchor it durably in society, otherwise it will disappear," said Yann Lasnier, the general delegate of the association.

"There is educational work to be carried out, for example to raise awareness of benevolence towards those around them or the neighborhood".

For the association, restoring a "will of all generations to respect each other" and "to seek to understand each other better" could go through the development of "intergenerational initiatives", such as the mobilization of young people in civic service with the elderly, or exchange workshops between seniors and schoolchildren.

Because the crisis has shown that "the social link is a vital link" and that "its lack, at 20 as at 90 years, is painful".

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  • Society

  • Youth

  • epidemic

  • Coronavirus

  • The elderly