BRAZIL: The Elderly – Victims in Their Own Homes

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 29 2006 (IPS) - In most cases of mistreatment of the elderly, it is family members who commit the abuse, according to complaints filed in a public assistance centre in Natal, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte.

“I receive up to five complaints a day on the busiest days,” Ana Cristina de Oliveira, a representative of the centre’s office of the prosecutor for the defence of the elderly, told IPS.

The prosecutor’s office provides public services like assistance in obtaining documents, consumer protection, and aid to people with disabilities.

De Oliveira said “all of the cases are serious,” and some of the victims have had to be hospitalised. The latest was a man who was “scorched with hot water, who had been locked up by a domestic employee who was paid to take care of him,” she said.

There are also many cases of pensioners who are deprived of their income by their families, like one elderly woman who showed signs of malnutrition although she drew a pension of 320 dollars a month – not a bad income in Brazil – said the prosecutor, Naide Pinheiro.

Similar centres, offices in police stations specialising in crimes against the elderly, and other offices that provide them with aid, including psychological and social assistance, constitute a safety net that was a central focus of discussion at the first National Conference on the Rights of the Elderly, held last Tuesday through Friday in Brasilia.

The gathering, part of a series of national conferences organised over the past few years by the left-leaning government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to design public policies in different social areas with broad participation, culminated a process of debates at the local and state level to elect the more than 400 delegates who took part in the Brasilia conference. They were also joined by guest experts and observers.

Around 500 proposals were approved by the delegates, with the aim of effectively implementing and enforcing the Statute on the Elderly, passed in 2003, reported Pinheiro, one of the participants in the conference.

She told IPS that “It is a good law, but what is needed is compliance by the authorities and society.”

She lamented that few municipalities in Brazil have adopted the Family Health Programme, whose family doctors provide medical attention through home visits – a much better system, she said, than “inhumane long lines” in hospitals and clinics.

Another serious problem is the high cost of medicines, which are simply unaffordable for many elderly people with meagre pensions.

Official statistics from 2003 showed that 29.9 percent of the population at that time – 174 million – suffered from chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, rheumatism or cardiopathies. But that proportion rose to 77.6 percent among Brazilians over 65.

Brazil is swiftly leaving behind its status as a “young” country. By 2004 there were 17.6 million Brazilians over 60, making up 9.8 percent of the population, compared to eight percent in 1993.

Twenty-five years ago, there were 48 elderly persons for every 100 children under five. Today that ratio is 120 to 100. In Brazil, women have a life expectancy of 75.2 years, compared to 67.6 for men, according to the latest available statistics, from 2003.

Among the proposals approved at the conference, Pinheiro mentioned a provision that will make it obligatory for schools at all levels to address issues involving the elderly, in order for youngsters to gain another perspective on ageing and older people.

Despite the domestic violence and discrimination still suffered by many senior citizens, their situation has improved in Brazil since the Statute on the Elderly was put into effect, said Pinheiro, who said that is reflected by the large increase in complaints filed with her office and police stations – indicating greater awareness and ability to seek assistance – and by increased awareness among the population at large.

The Statute classifies crimes such as neglect, discrimination and mistreatment, and establishes sentences of up to 12 years in prison. Although judges tend to impose alternative sentences, like community service, repeat offenders draw increasingly strict punishment, Pinheiro explained.

“Our culture must be changed and our society must be modified” to combat violence against the elderly, which mainly occurs within the home, making it difficult for the authorities to intervene, said Perly Cipriano, chairman of the National Council for the Elderly, which recommends policies and monitors their implementation and enforcement.

At the closing of the conference, Brazilian President Lula announced several measures in favour of the elderly. He promised, for instance, to shorten the long queues in which retirees must stand to pick up their pension checks or obtain other benefits at the National Institute of Social Security, and to lower interest rates on special loans for the elderly, which in some banks are as high as four percent a year.

Three-quarters of older Brazilians are poor, underlined Cecilia Minayo, scientific coordinator at the Latin American Centre for Studies on Violence and Health, which presented moving statistics on ageing in Brazil.

Nearly 15,000 elderly persons died of violent causes in 2002, most of them in traffic accidents on roads not suited to their needs. But 10 percent of these deaths were homicides, and nearly 10 percent were suicides caused by “desperation,” said Minayo.