OUR SENIORS DESERVE OUR RESPECT!
Our seniors deserve that we respect them, that we respect their most fundamental rights, that of their own physical and psychological integrity.
AWARENESS DAY
This is an obvious fact, since June 15, as every year on the same date, is a day dedicated to raising awareness against the risks of elder abuse.
In our latitudes, in Switzerland as in the rest of Europe, the health system works and in principle everyone has the right to quality medical care.
However, the population is ageing and the age group of 65 years and older is increasing significantly. Medical personnel are not always as well resourced as they should be, and sometimes there is exhaustion on their side, as well as on the side of the caregivers, sometimes lack of knowledge or lack of training to fulfill an increasingly difficult mission.
THE ELDERLY HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS OURSELVES.
It is however the place to remind that the most vulnerable in our society, of which the elderly are often a part, have rights, the same rights as each and every one of us. In the same way, this most fragile part of the population is entitled to increased protection, increased vigilance against all forms of abuse, visible, such as physical abuse, physical violence, psychological abuse, or the denial of their right to self-determination and to the most fundamental freedoms, such as the right to the treatment of their choice, the right to give free and informed consent on the decisions and choices to be made, with regard to the medication (often over-medication) of which they are the subject, and to the treatment that is administered to them.
And yet…. Are we sure that all elderly people – who are still in possession of their intellectual faculties – are well informed about the treatments they are undergoing, and thus whether they have given their free and informed consent to the medical treatment they are being administered – or not being administered – precisely because of their advanced age…
You want to know more about this world awareness day? Visit the United Nations page HERE.
Translated from: https://ccdh.ch/le-droit-des-personnes-agees/
