Home care: elderly urged to reclaim human rights

Denying frail and vulnerable people the right to decide what to wear or eat, where to go or when to go to bed amount to breaches of their basic human dignity, it argues.

Meanwhile thoughtlessly intruding while they are taking telephone calls, opening post without being asked or preventing them maintaining relationships with the opposite sex are cited as breaches of the right to privacy, in new guidance by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

And, crucially, sending a husband or wife sent to a care home far away without considering closer options constitutes a breach of the right to family life, it says.

A list of everyday indignities forms the centrepiece of a new 40-page booklet designed to make older people receiving care at home more aware of their human rights.

In contrast with previous human rights guidance dealing with terrorism or racial disputes, it focuses on everyday domestic problems faced by people who may be “suffering in silence”, according to the authors.

(2012-11-23/telegraph)