Human rights laws ‘leave elderly vulnerable’
Older people are being left vulnerable to abuse because of failings in existing human rights laws, Help the Aged claims today.
Research by the charity identifies ‘institutional cultures’ which breach human rights, such as limited services with little choice, lack of hygiene and restricted access to food and water.
But while protection exists in the form of the Human Rights Act (HRA), it says this does not cover the private sector, which provides more than 90 per cent of care home places and nearly 70 per cent of domiciliary care hours.
Help the Aged is consequently calling on the government to press ahead with its planned Equality Bill, which would create a Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) that could champion older people’s rights.
“High-profile and widely publicised cases of elder abuse and neglect rightly provoke revulsion and anger,” said the charity’s senior policy advisor, Tessa Harding.
“Unless strong new laws are introduced to give older people specific protection against breaches in their human rights, the sorts of cases seen in recent television programmes will continue to be treated only as a matter of poor standards.
“Only the full force of comprehensive human rights legislation will adequately protect our frailest elders.”
The Equality Bill, which passed through the committee stage in July, would enshrine the principles of respect and protection of each individual’s human rights as well as mutual respect between communities.
It would create the CEHR to replace the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Disability Rights Commission and, according to Ms Harding, help to “consign age discrimination to the dustbin of history, where it belongs”.
“Older people at risk will be looking to the new commission to make their concerns an early priority for action,” she added.
“If the human rights of older people fail to be protected once the CEHR opens its doors, abuse and neglect will continue to be improperly investigated and brought to justice.”
The Help the Aged research also claims older people are denied care on grounds of cost or “overly stringent eligibility criteria”, while state benefits “not fit for purpose” often cause people “severe financial hardship” in their final years.
