BackThe office of the Ombudsman published its 2015 report on systematic visits carried out by the public defender of rights. This report list the risks (ill-treatment of clients) posed by facilities providing care without authorisation (the “unregistered residential social services facilities”) and explain why good co-operation among all governmental authorities is necessary to penalise these facilities.
In the Czech republic, there is currently 1,825 thousand persons over the age of 65 1 , 140 thousand with dementia and 160 thousand with mild cognitive impairment. 2 According to the Czech Statistical Office forecasts, persons over 65 will make up 22.8 % of the population by 2030 and 31.3 % of the population by 2050, which will correspond to approximately 3 million people. The change of the age structure of the population is a social fact which calls for a reasonable and constructive approach.
Municipal authorities, healthcare services providers, legal guardians and families of the clients have to remain vigilant while looking for a residential care facility for the elderly in need and to always make sure that the facility has the authorization to provide residential social services; if the facility in question does not have such authorization, they should inform the locally competent Regional Authority of this fact.
However, the solution to the problem of unregistered residential social services, facilities and ill-treatment occurring in them does not, in my opinion, lie in repression. The aforementioned data show that the demand for social services for the elderly and persons with dementia will only grow in the coming years. The state as the guarantor of the quality of social services should, in accordance with state responsibilities in the area of social rights, respond to the situation by supporting legal social services as well as families and community services in order to enable persons dependent on care to remain in their natural social environment for as long as possible.
The government must address the problem of unregistered residential social services facilities right now by providing support to people who have found themselves in these institutions or those who are about to enter them. For this support to be effective, it must include financial help. Without proactive steps, these people will have no other possibility than to use the services provided by unregistered facilities and the repression itself will lose its primary meaning and legitimacy.
“In conclusion, I wish to stress the fact that the clients of unregistered residential social services facilities are often persons who are in a very vulnerable position due to their dependence on care provided by others. Often they do not have families willing or able to take care of them, therefore they put their hope and trust in the facility operators, which makes them willing to spend all their income on residence fees and suffer degrading hygienic conditions and ill-treatment.”
You can access the entire report under the following link.
Source: Office of the Ombudsman, Czech Republic
