One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence base to target social drivers of abuse, particularly ageism. This evidence gap is exacerbated by social discourses that perpetuate negative representations of older age as a time of vulnerability and physical decline, often in opposition to people’s actual experience of ageing. This article presents findings of the ‘OPERA Project’, which used co-designed digital storytelling to explore how ageing and ageism are perceived by older people. The project findings indicated that preventing elder abuse requires discursive intervention to combat negative social discourses representing older people, and to frame social acceptance of the inherent complexity of experiences of ageing. Using a social constructionist approach, this article puts forward a ‘middle path’ through traditional theories of ageing and associated ‘positive ageing’ discourses, which often problematise ageing itself.

在澳大利亚，限制老年人虐待预防的问题之一是缺乏强有力的证据基础来针对虐待的社会驱动因素，尤其是年龄歧视。这种证据差距因社会话语而加剧，这些话语将老年人视为脆弱和身体衰退时期的负面描述永久存在，通常与人们的实际老龄化经历背道而驰。本文介绍了“OPERA 项目”的发现，该项目使用共同设计的数字故事讲述来探索老年人如何看待衰老和年龄歧视。项目结果表明，防止虐待老年人需要进行话语干预，以打击代表老年人的负面社会话语，并使社会接受老龄化经历的内在复杂性。使用社会建构主义的方法，