Age discrimination:

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Social Forum. Geneva, 1-3 de april 2014 Los
derechos de las personas de edad

• Age discrimination
• The last socially acceptable discrimination?

Jorge Plano (Argentina) Coordinación de
Organismos de la Sociedad Civil de América Latina
y el Caribe sobre Envejecimiento y Vejez CORV
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• Concepts
• Cases
• Proposals

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ageism

• process of systematic stereotyping or
  discrimination against people because they are
  old, just as racism and sexism accomplish with
  skin colour and gender. Ageism allows the younger
  generations to see older people as different than
  themselves thus they subtly cease to identify
  with their elders as human beings.
• Robert Butler, 1969

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Two faces of discrimination
Exclusion Segregation Contempt Elimination Patronizing Clientelism Pity Overprotection
vs. a human rights perspective
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Prejudices and stereotypes

• Mental impairment
• Disease
• Low productivity at work
• Only leisure
• A burden on the family and the State
• Asexual
• Antitechnological
• Death waiting room
• Childlish
• Passive
• Lack of flexibility

Sometimes these are self-fulfilling prophecies
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CASES
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• European Union
• Eurobarometer Survey

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(No Transcript)
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Discrimination by type
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Age discrimination by country
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QALY / DALY concepts

• (Quality-Adjusted Life Year /
• Disability-Adjusted Life Year)
• Related to the "global burden of disease"

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QALY / DALY and age
Also relative weights lt 1are assigned to
different types of disabilities World Bank, 1993
(Global burden of disease)
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QALY / DALY usage

• QALY and DALY concepts were developed for the
  macro evaluation of health budgets but are being
  used as a policy rule to define actions like
  research resources allocation and even
  increasingly as a managerial tool to decide
  personal medical interventions.
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with
  Disabilities put disability issues in the
  framework of human rights, QALY/DALY returns it
  to a medicalized view.

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QALY / DALY reflections

• All human beings are born free and equal in
  dignity and rights
• How many steps to return to eugenesia, to lives
  unworthy to be lived and to recreate Aktion T4?

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• Older women in Tanzania

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Witchcraft in Tanzania

• Older women are targeted because of red eyes
  which are associated with a witch but are in fact
  the result of a lifetime of cooking in
  unventilated kitchens
• Disputes over property ownership and inheritance
  have often led to accusations of witchcraft which
  in turn result in violence, abuse and killings of
  older women.
• According to the Legal and Human Rights Centre
  report (2009) there was a total of 2,585 killings
  of older women for the period 2004-2009

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• That is
• 517 older women
• killed per year in Tanzania
• under accusation of witchcraft

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• Ageism and age discrimination in primary and
  community health care in the United Kingdom

Centre for Policy on Ageing, 2009
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• 19.1. Evidence of discrimination in policies and
  practiceOlder age is a factor in deciding to
  refer for specialist treatment with low referral
  rates for older people for cholesterol testing,
  angiography and revascularisation Parkinsons
  disease chronic kidney disease and cancer
• 19.3. Evidence of discrimination in systems and
  structuresOlder people, many with multiple
  conditions that can be effectively managed, now
  constitute the main users of the NHS, but there
  remains a general absence of a multidisciplinary
  approach to care of older people with complex
  needs. There is evidence that
  multidisciplinary teams achieve better outcomes
  for people with multiple pathologies and
  functional problems.
• Older people are moved into care homes
  without a comprehensive assessment and
  opportunity for rehabilitation, compared to
  younger people requiring support. There is
  evidence that the 400,000 older people living in
  care homes have difficulty accessing the services
  of a GP and other primary care services.

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• 19.4. Evidence of discrimination in
  resourcesDiscrimination is implicit in a general
  lack of priority for services that benefit older
  people, such as chiropody, integrated falls
  services, continence services and audiology
  services. Older people have difficulty accessing
  rehabilitation services and dental services
  older people have hearing and vision conditions
  that are not identified but could be treated and
  there can be long waiting times to access aids
  which would significantly improve quality of
  life.
• ATTITUDES/PRACTICECovert discrimination that is
  difficult to challenge arises from attitudes,
  custom and practice that practitioners may not
  recognise as being ageist.

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• Discrimination is the fundamental obstacle that
  must be attacked to achieve a change in the
  situation of older people, because it is based on
  ancient prejudice and stereotypes and is the
  ideological basis of behaviours and even have an
  influence on policies.

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• By taking discrimination as the basis we are
  situating the older people question as a human
  rights issue.
• Therefore is not enough with goodwill, education
  and campaigns.

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• We need to generate a specific binding
  international instrument referred to older
  people, that clearly states the equalization of
  their rights and opportunities establishing a
  universal and mandatory framework

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• Many thanks for your attention
• Jorge Plano
• jplano_at_yahoo.com