032874 ap Elderly sex claimed relaxing

B0STON AP) - The operators of homes for the elderly should take a more tolerant attitude toward sex among, their patients, a gerontologist says. He recommends that a special room might even be set aside - in nursing homes,- in which patients might engage in sex.

Sex "offers the elderly the kind of relief from anxieties that others find, for example, in alcohol, eating, tranquilizers, marijuana and hard drugs, and violent behavior," Dr. Victor Kassel of Salt Lake City, Utah, said Wednesday.

"An enlightened nursing home recognizes the therapeutic value of sexual activity among the aged because they, too, suffer from anxieties," he told hospital administrators attending the New England Hospital Assembly'- annual meeting.

Kassel said the tolerance should extend to homosexuality and sex between unmarried persons by mutual consent.

Laws regulating sexual activity were written to protect the family, he said However
when an 80-year man, and a consenting 80-year-old woman want to have sex together, there hardly seems a need for consideration of family, he added.

Kassel maintained that in the care of the elderly there often is too much Concern about what others will say.

Too many nursing home practices are instituted to satisfy families of patients rather than patients themselves, he said.