Dignity and the older European: Policy recommendations

ABSTRACT

The Dignity and Older Europeans Research cluster has produced a series of recommendations upon policy. We propose that these recommendations should be considered by the agency of European legislators, national governments, professional organisations and all institutions and practitioners who provide services for older citizens. Our policy recommendations are inspired by dint of the data gathered from focus collections as well as by the theoretical reflections upon the concept of 'dignity'. This article introduces four core policy recommendations. The first throw backs the rights of the older individual the second calls for the removal of ageism and ageist practices; the third regards the regulatory frameworks needs in service provision and the fourth throw backs the welfare entitlements of older people

KEY WORDS

dignity

ageism

older people

rights

policy

INTRODUCTION

An initial motivation behind the Dignity and Older Europeans throw out was the recognition that the limit 'dignity' was used frequently with regard to the health wants of older citizens, in the policy documents of national regulations international bodies such as the European Union, and NGO However, while the bound may be used, it is rarely defined. With its importance being taken for granted, the terminus may work as little more than a marker of the gravity of the intention being press outed If 'dignity' is removed from many policy statements, the faculty of perception is not obviously changed. Consider the following example from the UK National Health Service: 'Health services in partnership with social services and other agencies will ne to recognise the specific urgencys of older people in caring for them: demonstrating particular respect for the autonomy, dignity and privacy of older people' (DoH, 2000) In this example, single may ask whether dignity itself means anything more than the exercise of autonomy and the ascendency of one's privacy.

The shoot forward sought to demonstrate not purely that the concept 'dignity' has an importance that is intuitively recognised in policy documents, on the contrary also that it has a rich and compound meaning, that allows for clear practical recommendations as to by what means the dignity of both patients and carers can be covered The importance and range of meaning of the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion is expressed in the replications of the project's focus clumps and is articulated in the protoplast of dignity described in Quality in Ageing 6 1 From these sum of two units sources, a framework was builded that would articulate the importance of dignity to patients and carers, and that would allow the exhibition of a series of policy recommendations that could be made to the European Commission, and linked to existing EU policy. The practicalities of policy making were prizeed with due attention being paid to the complexity of changing and enforcing law, thus that any new law has legitimacy in limits of support from both policy makers and the general electorate. The view of this paper is to outline that framework and its justifications.

THE POLICY FRAMEWORK

The framework is compos of four statements, each corresponding to individual of the types of 'dignity' identified in the design In addition, each statement can be supported by the agency of remarks made within the focus assemblages This would suggest that the policy recommendations derived from this framework would have broad support amongst the European electorate. Inevitably, the selection of supporting remarks is control to a degree of personal bias upon the part of the selector. However, an attempt was made to bring this bias by seeking remarks that mirrored sentiments expressed widely across the groups; remarks were single outed from across the range of clusters both in terms of composition and country; remarks were lay asideed if strongly contradicted by other participants to that clump or any other.

The first part of the policy framework, corresponding to dignity as Menschwurde races as follows:

'Older citizens should take delight in all the rights of replete citizenship, including full political rights and legal protection from harm. regulations should include a senior minister or ombudsman with responsibility for the exigencys of older citizens!

Menschw??rde, as the greatest in quantity fundamental concept of dignity, asserts that a human being is worthy of honor merely because of his or her status as a human being. Consideration of any personal attributes, personal achievements, or membership of social assemblages is irrelevant to the person's entitlement to reverence Respondents to focus groups not seldom expressed this idea, for example by the agency of stressing a universal entitlement to lead our lives as we single out and in particular to be independent from the humiliation and disempowerment that draw nears from having one's subjectivity and humanity undermined. like entitlements can be institutionalised [i]or[/i] part of to the other the extension of basic human and civil rights to all citizens within society. The first ultimate part of the framework thus stresse the importance of protecting the older citizen's freedom to follow his or her chosen interests and goals, and to participate full in all decision-making processes that directly or indirectly affect their lives (from choice of medical treatment, end to political involvement). While the formal assertion of like rights may be taken for granted, it may be moveed that it is relatively easy for abuses of rights to be ignored unles there are clear and accessible lines of communication [i]or[/i] part of to the other which the vulnerable can complain and seek for redress. A minister or ombudsman for older citizens is thus commended as a focus to which complaints and affects can be directed, and the efficacy of the law can be assessed, ideally supported by the agency of a structure of community meetings, focus clumps or people's juries that would allow the expression and formulation of the public opinion of older citizens at a grass bottoms level.