Conclusions of EASPD Czech Provider Forum on healthy ageing for persons with disabilities
On 10th June, the EASPD Czech Republic Provider forum, hosted by Slezska Diakonie, addressed healthy ageing for persons with disabilities. This is a big issue today, as EU population is ageing, and persons with disabilities’ life expectancy is increasing. While the number of older persons with support needs is growing, the long-term care sector needs to organise a way provide the best quality support to older persons with support needs, for them to live a dignified life. Speakers presented the EU framework on ageing, along with common challenges and good practices in the support of older persons with disabilities.
Zuzana Filpkova, director of Slezska Diakonie, opened the event by introducing her organisation and the challenges in the provision of support for people with disabilities in the pandemic context. Luk Zelderloo, EASPD Secretary General followed and highlighted the importance of innovation of the social services sector, towards individualised and empowering support, responding to the needs of persons across their lifespan.
Irene Bertana, then introduced the main EU and EASPD initiatives regarding ageing and disability: the European Pillar of Social Rights, and Action Plan including the Green Paper on Ageing and the Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EASPD contribution to the consultation on the follow up on the Green Paper on Ageing, and UNIC project on the transition to user-centred funding models in long-term care (LTC).
Afterwards, Sarka Gaudkova from Slezska Diakonie, spoke about multi-disciplinarity in ageing and disability. For example respecting the “principle of normality” is important to keep the daily routine of persons with support needs, by e.g. involving close relatives in the planning and implementation of activities.
The focus moved then to Bavaria, Germany, with Thorsten Walter, from Diakoneo. He shared good practices such as the creation of a framework concept for palliative care and hospice accompaniment, with guidelines for support addressing management and social workers, and a content guide regarding language related to ageing and support practices for older persons with disabilities.
Some time was left to questions and discussion. The current model in the Czech Republic was addressed. It was highlighted that the national ageing strategy does not refer to persons with disabilities and that residential services for persons with disabilities are provided until they reach the age of 65, which posed several challenges. At 65 persons with disabilities can be moved to home care, nursing homes or hospitals, or new residential services for older persons with disabilities. The main problem about this is the disruption of the relationships created across a lifetime with staff and residents. Also, the support persons with mild to severe intellectual disabilities need is not the same as for older persons with support needs, so moving to services for older persons, might leave some needs unattended. Creating inter-generational services for persons with disabilities could represent a solution, but would require reorganisation and staff reskilling.
The webinar closed with a call to further cooperation at Czech and EU level to provide quality support to ageing persons with disabilities and older persons who develop support needs.