AGEING IN PORTUGAL AGEING IN PORTUGAL

MEP

2010/2011 - LILLE

AGEINGAGEING

“The aging is a double concept encompassing senescence as expression of developments in biological time, and the advancement of age as the unfolding of chronological time.” Henrard (1997).

Ageing PerspectivesAgeing Perspectives

Biological Perspective - increase of vulnerability

Social Perspective - the role that old people are supposed to perform in the society

Psychological Perspective - the way that people adjust themselves to all the effects of ageing

Portugal

Portugal Demography in Portugal

INE ( Portuguese Institute of INE ( Portuguese Institute of Statistics) Statistics)

Pyramid of Ages, Portugal 1960-2000 Source: INE

Legal and Ethical Perspectives

Not always has been given greater importance to the rights and obligations conferred to the elder population.

The legal framework defines itself, so that any elderly person has a right to their own independence, participation, assistance,

self-realization and the most important as also the most forgotten dignity.

IndependenceHave access to food, water, housing, clothing, health, family and community support. Have the opportunity to work or have access to other forms of income generation.

ParticipationBeing integrated into a society.Participate actively in the formulation and implementation of policies that directly affect their well-being and pass on to younger knowledge and skills.

AssistanceHave the assistance and protection of family

and community, in accordance with their cultural values.

Have access to health care to maintain or acquire the physical, mental and emotional, preventing the incidence of diseases.

Self-RealizationTake advantage of the opportunities for the

full development of their potential. Have access to educational resources, cultural,

spiritual and leisure society.

Dignity Be able to live in dignity and safety, without being

subject to exploitation and ill-treatment physical and/or mental.

Be treated fairly, regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, physical anomalies, economic conditions or other factors.

Political rights as the right to exercise citizenship, the right to equality between the sexes, which surprise does not provide for equality between people of different ages and the right to participate in society as citizens with full rights.

Economical and Financial Perspectives In the context of economic and financial issues relating to senior age, are patent some of the most important aspects, whether they are:  Low financial profits;High health costs, often related to the costs of treatments and pharmacological or non-pharmacological therapies;Increased food shortages;Weakness and precarious housing conditions; Lack of Social assistance;General difficulty in access to transport; All of these aspects rely on increased poverty associated to the economic policy and financial conditions experienced by the vast majority of the elderly.

Social and Coltural Perspectives

With regard to the cultural issues thematic inherent to aging, it is able to describe over the years a drastic change between the values, customs and predominant experiences of other past seasons comparatively with those of today.

In Portugal, in the 60s., of the 20th Century, the vast majority of the Portuguese population was forced to emigrate to other countries of Europe, including France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. This event was due mainly to economic situation experienced in the country, the dictatorial political system implemented and also to poverty that was coming in a few years into Portugal.

after the change of the dictatorial regime in Portugal, April 25, 1974, and with a relative increase of economic and financial capacity due to the entry of Portugal in the European Economic Community (EEC), during the 80s, the country had the greatest opportunity to expand in the global marketplace and thereby provide greater offers of employment to all Portuguese population, in large urban areas, such as Lisbon, Capital of the country, and the Porto.

Rural Exodus ...

Sudden change of large part of the Portuguese population more interior regions of the country, such as the districts of Aveiro, Viseu, Guarda, Castelo Branco, among others, to the coastal regions where the sector of industrialization was strongly advocated

Nowadays...

the people who lived near each other daily, had an important role in the life of each one, unlike the current situation which demarcates the individuality, social isolation and loneliness.

the concept of social and cultural Family was clearly transfigured over the decades. Today, we made a separate description of the concept of Family as a group of two or more people who share the same physical space while housing and which share among themselves certain obligations

Individual Perspectives

3. QUALITY OF LIFE AND WELL-BEING OF OLDER PEOPLE

Portugal is undergoing a demographic transition

as a consequence of:

Declining birth rates

Increase in life expectancy

Elderly population

Nowadays society wrongly believes that the

elderly are people with lack of affection, sick, dependent, sexless, useless, and lonely.

Associated to this, there are some issues that

touch our old people: retirement, death of partner,

decreased physical capacity, loss of autonomy, institutionalization. the final result are very

similar for all of them, depression, isolation and loneliness.

ACTIVE AGEING:

"the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order

to increase the quality of life during aging” (WHO, 2002),

3.1.NURSE’S ROLE IN PROMOTION AND PREVENTION

The are areas of intervention to the optimization

model of aging:

Health promotion and prevention ofdisability;Optimizing cognitive functions;Enhancing the emotional development andpersonality;Maximize social participation

3.1.1 - Health promotion and disease prevention in the Physical dimension

Regarding breathing is recommended that in case of "the lack of air" which occurs during activities of daily living, the elder stop and rest.

In regard to vertigo, the recommendations are that the individual must sit or lie comfortably and to consult a doctor as it is prone to high risk of falls.

3.1.2 - Health promotion and disease prevention in the Mental dimension

The dementia, grief and depression are the most

common problems of this dimension.

Portugal has developed a national plan tocombat the Depression

The recommendations outlined in this document for mental health promotion are based on the proposals and recommendations of CNSM (2002), the PNPI (2006), for example:

The guidelines for the prevention of dementia are:

3.1.3 - Health promotion and disease prevention in the Social dimension

In Portugal there is a program called "Aging with Quality",

based on WHO Guidelines IVII phase of Healthy Cities Project, which aims to promote activities such as:

Drawing;Dancing;Visits to museums;Cinemas;Art galleries;Public gardens.

elderly receive retirement pensions corresponding to the jobs they had in the passmore than one million of elderly receives less than three hundred euro’s per month

30% risk - to elderly who live with their families or mates46% risk - to those who live alone

higher risk of poverty

To fight this numbers, the Portuguese government has created in March of 2010 a complement to the most needed, in order to guarantee that at least three hundred thousand of these elderly receive three hundred euro’s per month. Yet it is not enough.

0 – 10%

10-15%

15-20%

20-25%

≥26%

“Social Letter”

Multipurpose instrument that provides the citizens with social information about the networks on social supports, on every specific area of the country, from small villages to big cities. Empowering the citizens on their own decisions, in multiple levels of institutional cooperation.

Two different major support networks Formal It includes all of the

programs and public institutions that the state provides

nursing homes health day care centers night care centers domiciliary support

service socializing centers residences

Informal It consists in elderly

people being taken cared by family, friends or even neighbors

rotation system This system allows

people to live in a familiar environment, close to their dear ones, and in the case of being more than one child, it takes some of the weight off the caregivers.

Voluntary institutions - food and clothing- company and visits

Phone lines

We are now studding and living in a city where thousands of elderly live alone in tall and very old buildings, with huge staircases that prevent them to go out, creating situations of high isolation, of food shortages, lack of health care and others that lead the elders to bad life quality.

Solidarity Project Membership The idea sustains in students volunteering to

go to old people’s houses and provide them with some company, health care’s, rehabilitation programs, helping them to go out and shop for supplies, go to doctor’s appoints, go to the drugs store, amount other things. This project should have very few financial costs, for the student volunteers it will bring an enormous number of advantages; such has development of some skills, at the communication level, relationships level and direct nursing interventions.

We intend to put this project in action, and we certainly wish that many of our colleges volunteer to participate and receive a previous formation before going to the field. We hope to make a difference and aware communities to this problem.