Tailoring Elderly Patients' Identities through Healthcare Service Relationships: Toward a Guardian Conception of Vulnerable Publics' Identities

Population aging has become an unprecedented global phenomenon, impacting most countries across the globe; in France, seniors aged 65 and over will become the largest age group in 2050, accounting for nearly 30% of the total population. This trend has a tremendous impact on the management of public hospitals, which are facing new challenges with the admission of elderly patients. Patients' medical and social care can be viewed through the prism of the healthcare service relationship. It refers to the mutual implication of patients and healthcare providers, as well as to the potential mobilization of their respective resources to nurture and develop the care relationship; however, in the case of vulnerable groups, such as elderly patients, the service relationship tends to develop in an asymmetrical manner: healthcare providers can claim a legitimacy in the provision of care derived from their competences and status. As hospitalized elderly patients can be considered fragile subjects facing an alteration of their physical and/or cognitive resources, healthcare providers have a natural tendency to make decisions on their behalf and tailor their identities.