Scotland and Westminster have been urged to take action to end ageism and improve the care of older people amid clams that four million elderly people are mistreated in Europe every year.
Discussions are already under way in Scotland about the potential for a commission on older people or a commissioner to represent their interests in a similar way to Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People - as highlighted by the Herald in our Grey Matters series.
Now a report from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has warned older people in Britain and other countries are suffering from delayed care, isolation, poverty and the fragmentation of health and social care services.
A report from the assembly recommends older persons be guaranteed a minimum living income and apporporate housing, and calls for a bar on discrimination in the provision of goods or services. It also proposes a charter of rights for older people in care settings and an action plan to eliminate physical, psychological and financial abuse of older persons.
The report was compiled by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, Chairman of Age Scotland and UK delegate to the Council of Europe.
He said there needed to be a general change in attitudes towards older persons.
Lord Foulkes said: "Older persons don’t ask for compassion, they ask for the recognition of their human rights… society should stop seeing older persons as a burden and governments should stop approaching the population ageing in terms of costs and supply, both of which lead to the human rights of older persons becoming side-lined."
He added that he would put pressure on Westminster and Holyrood to consider the report thoroughly and implement its recommendations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel