Maybe old people don't want to be treated differently

S's dementia is classed as 'young onset' (as opposed to the former 'early onset' which might suggest you'll get it, sooner or later)  -  she was only 50 when she first had memory problems. Now we are often told that she and all the others like her are at a disadvantage as such provision as there is for dementia sufferers is almost exclusively tailored to the needs of 'old people' (because the vast majority of dementia sufferers are over seventy) and people of S's age who still have some awareness will not be interested in the same kind of activities as 'old people'.  I think this is correct.

But recently I started to think that maybe old people don't want to be treated as old people.  I'm older than S and I've no idea when I might think of myself as an old person but I'm pretty sure it won't be any time soon.  Maybe a lot of people think like that.  We're back to the person-centred approach again  -  people just want to be treated as individuals.  They should be.