Towards Human Rights in Residential Care for Older Persons

People are leading significantly longer lives than previous generations did, and the proportion of older people in the population is growing. Residential care for older people will become increasingly necessary as our society ages and, we will require more of it. At this moment in time, the rights of older people receive attention at international and regional levels, with the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the African Union exploring the possibility of establishing new conventions for the rights of older persons. This book explores the rights of older people and their quality of care once they are living in a care home, and considers how we can commence the journey towards a human rights framework to ensure decent and dignified care for older people. The book takes a comparative approach to present and future challenges facing the care home sector for older people in Africa (Kenya), the Arab world (Egypt), Australia, China, England, Israel, Japan and the USA. An international panel of experts have contributed chapters, identifying how their particular society cares for its older and oldest people, the extent to which demographic and economic change has placed their system under pressure and the role that residential elder care homes play in their culture. The book also explores the extent to which constitutional or other rights form a foundation to the regulatory and legislative structures to residential elder care and it examines the important concept of dignity. As a multi-regional study of the care of older person from a human rights perspective, this book will be of excellent use and interest, in particular to students and researchers of family and welfare law, long-term care, social policy, social work, human rights and elder law.

Helen Meenan is an expert on age discrimination and elder law and is Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Business and Law, at Kingston University, United Kingdom. Nicola Rees is the Director of Studies and Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law, at Kingston University, United Kingdom. Israel Doron is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Introduction, Helen Meenan, Nicola Rees, Israel Doron 1. Human Rights and Residential Care For Older Adult sin Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Study of Kenya, Isabella Aboderin, Cecilia Mbaka, Carolyne Egesa, and Hilda Akinyi Owii 2. What's New in the Residential Care of the Elderly in the Arab and Islamic World? The Case Of Egypt, Mohamed A. Arafa 3. Human Rights and Residential Care For Older Persons - An Australian Perspective, Sue Field 4. Protecting the Rights of Chinese Older Persons in Need of Residential Care: The Social Justice and Health Equity Dilemma in the People's Republic of China, Michelle H. Y. SHUM, JD, Andy H. Y. HO, PhD, Hao LUO, PhD, Jun Fang WANG, MSW, Ying WANG, MA, and Terry Y. S. LUM, PhD 5. The residential care of older people in England and the special relevance of Dignity and Human Rights, Helen Meenan 6. In Search of Rights in a Paternalistic Environment: The Israeli Experience of Regulating Residential Care for Older Persons, Israel Doron 7. Human Rights and Residential Care for Older People in Japan, Takashi Amano, Naoki Ikegami, and Tomoaki Ishibashi 8. Residential Care in the United States: A Persistent Struggle for Quality, Dignity & Independence, Richard J. Mollot, JD 9. Dignity as a Theoretical and Legal Construct in The Context of Care For Older Persons and the Developing Human Rights Agenda for Older Persons, Dr Haris Kountouros and Dr Nicola Rees Conclusion, Israel Doron, Nicola Rees, and Helen Meenan