Current legislation is failing to protect older people from human rights abuses, according to a new report.
The Help the Aged study, released on Tuesday, finds that existing human rights legislation is "failing some of the country’s most vulnerable older people".
The report says there are "glaring omissions" in the protection of older people.
Current laws leave people open to to mistreatment which "cannot be fully investigated or dealt with under the Human Rights Act".
Stakeholder Response: Help the Aged
Tessa Harding, senior policy adviser at Help the Aged, said: "High-profile and widely publicised cases of elder abuse and neglect rightly provoke revulsion and anger.
"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.”
Commenting about the need for a CEHR to enshrine age equality into the fabric of everyday life, she said: "Right now in the UK today there is still no law against age discrimination in provision of a whole raft of goods and services. While the Human Rights Act has gone some way to protecting principal freedoms and standards, the lives of older people continue to be blighted because they have inadequate means of accessing advice about their rights. We need new legislation and a strong new commission to consign age discrimination to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.”
"The new CEHR should deliver firm, clear messages about older people’s human rights to all providers of health and care services. It must ensure changes in practice which will safeguard vulnerable and frail elders. Investigations should be undertaken where there are concerns and advice made available to older people and their families on how they can access help if they believe their rights have been infringed.
"Older people at risk will be looking to the new Commission to make their concerns an early priority for action. 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."
Stakeholder Response: Counsel and Care
A spokesman said: "Counsel and Care recognises that the Human Rights Act is a good piece of legislation and that it is currently underused, leaving particular groups of people vulnerable. The impact of the legislation is certainly weakened by the limited area of application. We agree that it is the case that the private care sector should also be required to comply with this legislation.
"Making alterations to the Human Rights Act would be a positive move forward, and would be reasonably straightforward to introduce – it would be a case of extending the same principles to a wider net. However, in terms of actions to ensure that elder abuse is eradicated, there are other measures which could be taken, as well as making alterations to the Human Rights Act.
"There are many other forms of discrimination which occur within service provision, and these could be addressed if Age Discrimination legislation is extended to cover discrimination in goods and services (as does the Race Relations Act 1976). It would then be possible to challenge care homes on the grounds that they have provided a poor service due to age discrimination.
Stakeholder Response: Association of Retired and Persons over 50
A spokesman said: "ARP/050 has long advocated a review of human rights legislation as it relates to vulnerable older people and fully supports the position being taken by Help the Aged.
"The courts have ruled that as the law now stands it does not cover private agencies, meaning that those providing residential and domiciliary care can abuse the rights of their clients with impunity and some, regrettably, do. The government is now giving consideration to this anomaly but there is little evidence that they are exercising haste in doing so.
"The Human Rights Act is specific in its requirements but can be broad in its interpretation. Article 2 ' The Right to Life' can and should mean that no hospital will place DNR ('Do not resuscitate) notices on elderly patients beds.
"People will be properly fed - with assistance when necessary - and not deprived of food or water as a part of 'treatment'. Article 3 ' Prohibition of Torture' includes ' treatment or punishment which is inhuman or degrading'.
"The number of reports of inhuman and degrading treatment is, unfortunately, growing and the requirements of the Act are, in too many instances, being blatantly ignored by those responsible for implementing them.
"On a broader level, Article 2 of Protocol 1 provides 'A Right to Education'. Successive governments have denied or limited the access of older people to education. Although the maximum age at which university grants might be applied for will, next year, be extended from 54 to 60 there is no guarantee that given the demands on resources from other age groups that this will be of any real advantage.
"The cost of local education authority course continues to rise and in many areas 'recreational' courses are disappearing. The much repeated objective of ' Lifelong Learning' is, in fact, little more than window dressing for a policy which is depriving older people of learning opportunities and consequently, denying them a basic human right.
"The government has consistently dragged its feet over the introduction and implementation of legislation to improve the rights of older people. The European Employment Directive, which comes into force in October next year is being held back until the very last possible moment and even then its provisions are so meagre, and the number of loopholes for employers growing so swiftly, that it will make little difference to the current discriminatory situation.
"The imposition by the government of a 'Default Retirement Age' at 65 - when employers can dismiss any employee without redress - makes a mockery of any claim to advocate human rights. It is only if the envisaged Commission for Equality and Human Rights fully achieves its potential, and the 'Age strand' is extended to cover matters beyond employment - that there is any hope for change in the future. At the moment in our society to grow old is, in most instances, to leave human rights behind."
Stakeholder Response: Age Concern
Gordon Lishman, head of public affairs at Age Concern England, said: "It is tragic that older people can experience abuse in their own homes, in care homes and hospitals. Nobody should be forced to suffer abuse of any kind.
"The new Commission for Equality and Human Rights has a crucial role to play in helping stamp out abuse of older people. It will help ensure that older people that pay for their own care are equally protected from abuse as those that are looked after in government-funded care homes. The Commission will strengthen existing human rights legislation and help to stamp out abuse."
