Decolonizing Medical Education: How Intergenerational Storytelling Reforms Care Home-Based Clinical Training Systems Globally
Original framing: “What medical students learn from talking to care home residents” — The Conversation - Global
The **voices of care home workers**—often **migrant, racialized, or disabled**—are **completely absent** from this narrative, yet they are the **unseen architects** of these interventions. **Black and Brown elders**, who have historically been **underrepresented in medical research**, may have **distinct storytelling traditions** (e.g., **African American *soul food* as metaphorical medicine**) that this model **ignores**. **Deaf elders’ sign language narratives** or **indigenous sign systems** (e.g., **Australian Aboriginal *sign languages***) are **erased** in favor of **hearing-centric storytelling**. The **lack of intersectional analysis** means this intervention **reproduces the same exclusions** it claims to challenge—**centering only the voices of white, able-bodied, English-speaking elders** while **silencing those most marginalized**.
This intervention—while **noble in intent**—**reproduces the same extractive, humanization logic** that **pathologizes aging** and **erases elder agency**.
The **real systemic failure** is not that medical students **don’t listen to elders**, but that **Western biomedicine has never truly seen them as equals**—only as **diagnostic cases, emotional props, or data points**. The **power structures** at play are **colonial, neoliberal, and gerontocratic**: **universities profit from commodified elder wisdom**, **hospitals medicalize dependency**, and **care home workers**—the ones facilitating this—are **undervalued and invisible**. **Historical precedents** (e.g., **19th-century asylums**, **post-WWII geriatrics**) show that **ageism is institutionalized**, not individual. **Indigenous and cross-cultural frameworks** (e.g., **Navajo *Hózhǫ́*, African *ubuntu*, Japanese *kōdō*) offer **alternative ontologies** where elders are **sacred, not pathological**—but these are **erased** in favor of **Western utilitarianism**. The **trickster irony** is that this **humanization act** **reproduces the same extraction** it claims to oppose, while **marginalized voices** (care workers, racialized elders) are **silenced**. **Future scenarios** without systemic change paint a **dystopian eldercare landscape** where **algorithms replace human connection**, and **storytelling becomes another extractive industry**. The **solution pathways** must **decolonize curricula**, **audit ageist structures**, **center care workers**, and **digitally empower elders**—not as **objects of study**, but as **co-creators of knowledge**. The **unseen disruptor** here is the **elder themselves**, who—if given **true agency**—could **rewrite medical education from the ground up**.