Using fictional characters to challenge ageist assumptions and negative stereotyping

Hayes employs the TV situation comedy, The Royle Family, to enable students training to be podiatrists to examine their own and social attitudes towards aging and the elderly. Focusing on the character ‘Nana’, the grandmother in the series, she examines issues such as stereotyping and media representations of the elderly. Hayes reflects on the significance to a profession such as podiatry of identifying personal and professional assumptions about the elderly, and the implications that negative stereotyping can have for the treatment and services that the elderly receive. She illustrate the profound impact that developing students’ critical reflection through analysis of popular texts, alongside the exploration of factual and theoretical material can have on their self-awareness and on their affective responses to this growing group of health service users.