Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: - HelpAge International

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Chapter 4: The voices of older persons “Physical abuse by caregivers takes place in older people’s homes. There is also emotional abuse.” Jamaica “Our family is careless; they don’t care for us; they don’t see that our documents are updated.” urban Bolivia “I think elder abuse occurs usually in the home where the parents disagree with the children and tension builds up. I would never live with my children.” urban Canada Property grabbing In Africa and some other regions, participants report particular concern about land and property grabbing by younger family members – sometimes even involving killing. “Abuse of older people by families, mainly adult children, by misappropriating their property, including land, livestock and farm produce, is a serious problem.” rural Ethiopia “Older people’s land is grabbed and at times they are killed in order to take over their property.” rural Uganda “My own children fought with me over the ownership of the land. They told me, ‘This is Daddy’s land, it was bought with money Daddy had earned’.” rural Philippines “Families take advantage of older people when it comes to inheritance. They force them to sign over their property documents to them…. It’s so sad.” Belize “I know a family where the daughter abuses her old mother, takes her money, and doesn’t want to care for her, telling her ‘I hope you die soon’.” rural Ukraine Older women’s vulnerability Participants referred to instances of serious maltreatment and crimes against older women, including rape. In some areas, these are often related to witchcraft accusations. “The youth take drugs and then rob older persons’ households and some cases of rape have been reported.” urban Uganda “We are called witches due to our old age. We suffer a lot because we do not have anyone to support us, even when we are sick. When we used to work everything was fine but now our children do not give us food and instead call us witches.” rural Mozambique “Particularly older mothers and mothers-in-law are in a terrible situation.... They are getting less food compared to other family members, experience physical torture and never get medicines or medical care when they are sick.” rural Bangladesh “Our neighbour had bad children who did not take care of her so she died. We had helped her with food, when she was locked up and hungry. My son brought her bread but her children quarrelled with him.” rural Kyrgyzstan At the same time, however, some participants note improvements in personal security, especially for older women. The evidence for this is particularly strong from Tanzania, where NGOs have implemented specific programmes in response to issues related to witchcraft beliefs. “For the last 10 years, the village government, local militia and the community police have been strengthened to make sure that older women live in peace and harmony.” rural Tanzania “In our community things have changed. In the past, some older women were abused, for example, they were isolated, sent threatening letters and sometimes even killed. But now, they are protected, respected and able to obtain their rights. This is possible because of a rights awareness programme.” rural Tanzania Barriers to tackling abuse Feelings of shame are often seen as a barrier to tackling elder abuse. In Asia and the Pacific, some participants say that elder abuse remains largely unreported to safeguard the family’s status. “The issue of abuse does not go outside of the family for the sake of family prestige and out of fear.” rural Nepal “Older people suffer abuse in silence.” rural Fiji 154 Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: A Celebration and A Challenge
Another barrier to tackling abuse – the fear of being abused repeatedly until justice is done – is also reported. An older woman from Moldova points out: “The problem is that if you are abused and you speak out, until the police come, you are in even greater danger.... They also know that justice is so slow that they can be abused many times in the meantime.” rural Moldova The consultations show that older people are victims of crime and many avoid going out because they are afraid of being attacked. The most common experience is robbery, mainly when walking in the street. “There is still a problem of safety because many older people are attacked when leaving the bank. They know the person is old and goes to the bank to get money.” urban Brazil “We can’t walk freely in the streets because of crimes.” Belize “Nearly every day the papers report some theft of objects of value from older people. It is really scandalous that older people become victims of theft or violence only because of their frailty.” urban Germany “When I’m walking home from church, I don’t feel safe.” urban Canada Participants also report that older people are discriminated against or taken advantage of as consumers, as two examples from Bosnia and Herzegovina show. “After 65 you cannot get travel insurance. If in an exceptional case you get it, you pay double.” rural Bosnia and Herzegovina “As consumers we are often abused. As we do not have much money we look for discounts. We often get attracted by big displays of items with discounts, but the details are in such small print that we cannot read them and in the end we pay a lot.” urban Bosnia and Herzegovina Media images of older people Many participants feel that the media does not often reflect an appropriate image of older people. Old age and older people are more often than not portrayed in a bad light. “What you hear about often in the press are the deaths of older people sleeping rough or queuing for long hours.” urban Nigeria “I have never experienced situations of elder abuse or neglect nor heard abuse from people around me. We only see this kind of story in the media, especially through television and newspapers.” Thailand “Older people are shown in advertisements but in the media the older individual is still a poor thing, a discriminated poor thing.” urban Brazil “Television shows older people only when an older woman is assaulted, when an indigenous older person is sick or when there is some other problem.” urban Paraguay “The mass media ignores older people’s problems.” rural Ukraine “In general, images of ageing are not so good, everyone thinks that older people are stupid or have dementia – but not all of us are suffering from this.” urban Austria There are, however, some indications that positive images are becoming more common. “Today there are also positive images. And I think the positive images are prevailing.” urban Brazil Photo credits for pages 138-155: Maxim Ahner/HelpAge International, Shahidul Alam/HelpAge International, Amity, Malik Alymkuloff/HelpAge International, Leila Amanpour/HelpAge International, Dalton Bennett/HelpAge International, Peter Caton/HelpAge International, Muriel Chaulet/Ville de Lyon, Neil Cooper/ HelpAge International, COSE, Sabine Degen, Frédéric Dupoux/HelpAge International, Judith Escribano/Age International, Heywood Hadfield/HelpAge International, Sarah Hertzog/HelpAge International, Joanne Hill/HelpAge International, Kate Holt/HelpAge International, Wang Jing/HelpAge International, Ellen Krijgh, Dominika Kronsteiner/HelpAge International, Azuma Nakahira/HelpAge International, Antonio Olmos/HelpAge International, Mayur Paul/HelpAge International, Abu Riyadh Khan/HelpAge International, Nile Sprague/HelpAge International, Sven Torfinn/Cordaid, Penny Tweedie/HelpAge International, Tom Weller/ HelpAge International 155
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Ageing in the Twenty-First Century:
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Ageing in the Twenty-First Century:
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Contents 6 List of abbreviations 7
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Acknowledgements Acknowledgements O
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Preface This is a special year for
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HelpAge International Foreword Fore
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In 1950, there were 205 million per
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The way forward In many parts of th
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Chapter 1 of the report provides an
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Chapter 1: Setting the scene In 195
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Discussions with older people in So
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There are also marked sub-regional
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The difference between current life
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The implications of increasing life
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The challenges of population ageing
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The response: The Madrid Internatio
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When the law was passed we started
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Chapter 2: A fresh look at evidence
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I take care of eight grandchildren
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Older people in the Philippines mar
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Income security in old age The chal
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A major challenge in interpreting p
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social (non-contributory) pensions
Page 47 and 48:
The global financial and economic c
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Table 2: Selection of social pensio
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South Africa’s Old Age Pension co
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I’m lucky to have a large pension
Page 55 and 56:
Antonio Olmos/HelpAge International
Page 57 and 58:
Computer training in Ireland. Rapid
Page 59 and 60:
Transforming lives through literacy
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The rise of non-communicable diseas
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Dementia - a global concern Dementi
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Risk factors for chronic diseases T
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Many of the determinants of poor he
Page 69 and 70:
Hospital care in Haiti. Older peopl
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Living longer with HIV Among infect
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Training of care providers and heal
Page 75 and 76:
Age-friendly environments “Whatev
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Fixed-rate bus fares for people age
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In the UK, 45 per cent of 55-75 yea
Page 81 and 82:
Workers in rural informal labour fo
Page 83 and 84:
Urban life also has negative aspect
Page 85 and 86:
Ageing and environmental change Cli
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A refugee in Dadaab, Kenya. A surve
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Global response In the past 10 year
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In Myanmar, volunteers from older p
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I give my mother my love “My moth
Page 95 and 96:
Exposing elder abuse and discrimina
Page 97 and 98:
Government response Few countries h
Page 99 and 100:
Teresa Minja of the Tanzania Social
Page 101 and 102:
On a different yet equally importan
Page 103 and 104: News, television, film and advertis
Page 105 and 106: Chapter 3: A review of progress The
Page 107 and 108: At least 17 countries have approved
Page 109 and 110: Table 2: Examples of surveys and re
Page 111 and 112: In a few countries, including the D
Page 113 and 114: South Africa’s National Archives
Page 115 and 116: Residents and staff of a care home
Page 117 and 118: Regional preparations for the secon
Page 119 and 120: Regional Strategy for Implementatio
Page 121 and 122: Since 2011, Peru’s National Solid
Page 123 and 124: A great-grandmother in Viet Nam, wh
Page 125 and 126: In preparation for an analysis of p
Page 127 and 128: More specific recommendations are:
Page 129 and 130: service policies across sectors and
Page 131 and 132: In some countries, programmes to su
Page 133 and 134: Chapter 4: The voices of older pers
Page 135 and 136: Older persons’ responses to the M
Page 137 and 138: Health in older age Overall, partic
Page 139 and 140: In Kyrgyzstan, older people raised
Page 141 and 142: Some also refer to the shifting rel
Page 143 and 144: “Older people were also invited t
Page 145 and 146: “Older women can do many things.
Page 147 and 148: “Pension fund officers treat olde
Page 149 and 150: “In the past there was only one h
Page 151 and 152: “People with mental disorders are
Page 153: In various aspects of daily life, o
Page 157 and 158: Based on these recommendations, a f
Page 159 and 160: Chapter 5: The way forward “Older
Page 161 and 162: concern in developed countries, whi
Page 163 and 164: Capacity development for an ageing
Page 165 and 166: Specific actions according to the P
Page 167 and 168: Percentage of total population aged
Page 179 and 180: 7. Unemployment rate of older perso
Page 181 and 182: 17. Number and proportion of public
Page 183 and 184: In most countries, it proved feasib
Page 185 and 186: 30. OECD, Pensions at a Glance 2009
Page 187 and 188: 156. UNAIDS, Together We Will End A
Page 189 and 190: 286. US States Government Accountab
Page 191 and 192: UNFPA, the United Nations Populatio
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