AGE Platform Europe - PRESS PACK : A European Charter of the rights and responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance

Home AGE Policy Work Quality care standards and elder abusePRESS PACK : A European Charter of the rights and responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance

PRESS PACK : A European Charter of the rights and responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance

Presentation of the strategy

Elder abuse: an issue on the agenda of the European institutions in the last years

Elder abuse is increasingly being recognized as a major societal problem at the European and national levels and a Eurobarometer on long-term care services showed in 2008 that 47% of Europeans are at the view that elder abuse is widespread. The European Commission organized in March 2008 a conference on ”Protecting the dignity of older persons – the prevention of elder abuse and neglect” and the successive EU presidencies in 2008 and 2009 shown their commitment in fighting against elder abuse. The European Parliament is having a debate on an oral question and motion for resolution on ‘long-term care for older people’ and asks for a “green paper to be produced by the Commission on elder abuse and safeguarding older people in the community and in care settings”.

The European Charter of rights and responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance: a way to improve the quality of long-term care services

The Charter is the result of the EUSTACEA project against elder abuse involving 11 partners from 9 countries coordinated by AGE Platform Europe, and supported by the European Commission’s Daphne III programme (for more information on the EUSTACEA project: http://www.age-platform.eu/en/daphne ).

The preamble of the Charter summarizes the objective of the text: “The EUSTACEA partners want to launch a discussion within the EU Member States on how best to recognize and affirm the rights of the most vulnerable older people. Their objective is to give a voice to older people and ensure that they are heard by the whole society. […] advancing in age does not involve any reduction of a person’s rights, duties and responsibilities but highlights that a person can be in either a permanent or temporary state of incapacity and unable to protect their own rights.”

The Charter aims to become a reference document setting out the fundamental principles and rights that are needed for the wellbeing of all those who are dependent on others for support and care due to age, illness or disability. The aim of the Charter is to complete and support the charters and other measures which are already implemented in some countries of the European Union.

Finally with this document, AGE seeks to promote a better quality of care in Europe, and especially the development of European mandatory quality standards for long-term care services and the implementation of adequate measures to fight elder abuse, including in informal care settings. The Charter will be completed and clarified by an accompanying guide targeting caregivers, policy-makers and older people’s organizations which is currently being developed by the partners. It will be finalized in November 2010.

On the 15^th June will take place the World Elder abuse awareness day, and a high number of older people’s organizations will organize events and awareness-raising meetings, and some will hand the European Charter to their Parliament or Government.

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European context

The European Commission organised a conference entitled "Protecting the dignity of older persons – the prevention of elder abuse and neglect" in March 2008 in which AGE played a key role.

The Czech EU Presidency organised a large conference in May 2009 and AGE’s proposal for a European strategy was welcomed by all participants. Following the Swedish presidency conference, the Council adopted conclusions on "Healthy and dignified ageing" at its meeting on 30 November 2009 which invites the Member States "to make, or continue to make, the issue of healthy and dignified ageing one of their priorities for the coming years".

The European Parliament has also been very supportive, asking the European Commission to set pilot projects on the issue. ANBO and some partners successfully applied and are now running a project called EUROPEAN which is compiling a reference framework for the prevention of elder abuse across Europe. Liz Lynne, co-chair of the Intergroup on Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity, has recently posed a question to the European Commission to find out what the EC plans to do to protect older people against elderabuse. Ms Lynne is also working on a Resolution from the European Parliament on the issue of elderabuse.

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