Sexual wellbeing and rights in later life: developing an affirmative approach to older adult's sexual agency

Social work is a human rights-based profession. Advocating and upholding human rights is a core activity embedded in the international definition of social work (IFSW, 2014). In the context of supporting older people, this intersects with the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (1991) which sets out independence, participation, self-fulfilment and dignity as integral principles to supporting older people to fully participate in society. Missing from both discourses on ageing and human rights is an understanding of sexual rights. The World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) (2014) identifies sexual rights as 'grounded in universal human rights' however social and cultural discourses compound the invisibility of older adults' sexual rights and inhibit discussion about the sexual wellbeing of older adults in social work practice contexts. In this chapter we identify through a critical lens the sexual and gender discourses that limit recognition of sexual wellbeing in later life. We integrate messages from recent research on older people's sexual lives to broaden social work understanding of the diversity of sexual experiences across older age, gender and sexuality. We conclude with suggestions that affirm and support the sexual rights and wellbeing of older adults. An intersectional approach underpins our discussion. Age, gender and sexuality are three interconnecting social structures for organising social life that generate inequalities in the ways in which older people from different social backgrounds and characteristics are represented, understood and supported (Calasanti, 2019). These intersections, if not recognised can generate further forms of inequality, exclusion and shame for people with care and support needs. While there is a considerable volume of research examining the interconnections between gender and sexuality the inclusion of ageing is important to intersectional perspectives (King et al., 2019).