Legal Considerations
Adult Protection Systems and Australian Laws: Focusing on Reform of Adult Guardianship Acts and Elder Abuse Legislation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yukio Sakurai
We live in an aging society where elderly with dementia is sharply increasing. We need effective public policy. A legal definition for adult protection has not been established yet. In this paper, the adult protection system refers to an offer of necessary support, according to individual characteristics, to minimize restriction of a principal's rights (the principle of necessity), and it is also considered to replace other less restrictive alternative measures available (the principle of replenishment). It differs from the adult guardianship system, which uniformly and strictly restricts substitute decision-making for elderly with cognitive disabilities. Instead supported decision-making model is largely applied to and substituted decision-making is minimized. In other words, human rights are to be highly respected. Australian law reforms in adult guardianship and elder abuse have been discussed in state and federal law reform commissions in response to growing population of elderly with dementia and international human rights legislation and awareness, and is being considered in the Houses. These movements are positive to respond to possible challenges of the aging society and is a reference for any country including Japan. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Australian law reforms of adult guardianship in states and federal legislation on elder abuse, and to examine the implications of those from an adult protection perspective. This process can then be considered through literature survey and interviews that a package of law reforms in Australia is an example of adult protection legislation process.
The Perception of Older People Towards the State’s Responsibility in Old-age Care in Urban China
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pui Ling Ada Cheung
Adopting the neoliberal welfare approach emphasising personal responsibility since the economic reform in the late 1970s, the state has restricted its responsibility to that of mainly looking after deprived groups and relied more on the responsibility of the individual or the family in the care of older people in urban China. With substantial economic growth in recent decades, should the state endorse collective intervention to enhance the livelihood of older people who have contributed to the country in the past and to mitigate the demographic and socio-economic impacts on the care support for older people? On the other hand, given the improved financial conditions, how do the present-day older generation see their own and the state’s responsibility for old-age support? In search of a better understanding of the responsibility issue in old-age care, qualitative semi-structured interviews with older people in urban cities were conducted with views supplemented by other stakeholders. Older people’s perception of the state to have a responsibility to look after them, as shown in the findings, might reflect their readiness to assert their rights to state care as a recognition of their past contributions to the rapid economic growth as well as their insecure feeling in the face of future uncertainty when the function of the family and the neighbourhood continues to decline. This points to the fact that the state should re-examine its welfare philosophy to reflect the demographic and socio-economic reality which demands its greater share of responsibility in a transitional economy.
Doing Ageism: The Social Construction of Age Discrimination Experiences in Two European Countries with Different Legal Protection Frameworks
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stefan Hopf
A variety of research shows the existence of age discrimination in the EU (Sargeant, 2011; W. J. van den Heuvel, 2012). Although there is a legal non-discrimination framework within European Union law, which includes age discrimination (e.g. Articles 10 or 19 TFEU), the legally binding instrument only obliges Member States to prohibit age discrimination in the labour market (Directive 2000/78/EC). Protection against age discrimination in access to services and goods is not regulated yet. Consequently, there are different legal situations on the national level (Chopin & Germain 2015). Such differences in the legal framework can form the basis for differences in the experience of age discrimination. The implementation of anti-discrimination legislation has been shown to improve the situation of older workers (Neumark & Song, 2013), to influence the general perception of the problem (Havinga, 2002) and to affect individual assessments (Cox & Barron, 2012). On the basis of different qualitative methods, the experiences of older Austrian and Irish adults with age discrimination in access to services and goods is investigated. The aim is to show the range of different age discrimination experiences and how affected persons embed this experience in their experience of ageing, and how the experience is implicitly orientated by the country specific legal context and an associated overarching idea of justice and equality. The study provides insights into the macro-structural differences between the studied countries and offers first results from a series of stakeholder and expert interviews that were part of the explorative phase.
Parents/Grandparents Sponsorship Immigration Program and Its Impact on the Health Status and Well-being of Older Immigrants in Canada View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ivy Li
Immigration program design/policy not only can bring foreign nationals to Canada but also may affect their settlement process and well-being after they immigrate to Canada. The policy change of Parents/Grandparents Sponsorship (PGP) immigration program has extended adult immigrant sponsors’ undertaking for their parents/grandparents such as food, clothing, shelter, fuel, household supplies and other personal needs from 10 years to 20 years, which means the sponsored parents/grandparents are not entitled for the social support or other welfare such as Old Age Security (OAS) pension, Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) benefit, and other welfare such as subsidized housing that other older immigrants may enjoy. Some problems from this forced dependency of parents/grandparents on their children/grandchildren such as neglect, domestic abuse, and violence may be serious and need urgent attention. However, no research and even no literature connects the immigration policy with older immigrants’ health and wellbeing. My paper examines the reasons and ideologies underpins the PGP policy design and its changes, discussed the possible issues/problems resulting from the policy changes through lens of social determinants on health, and analyzed the impact of immigration policy and its changes on the settlement and wellbeing of older immigrants especially those visible minority older immigrants.
