World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2020 Report

This year due to Corona Lockdown, WEAAD could not happen on ground, but we tried Innovative ONLINE Global event.

It was one of most successful event, hundreds of people of different age group, across globe from different country - India, Nepal, Africa, Australia, USA, South America, Europe participated with enthusiasm in this unique Online event, Posing with Purple Dot, creating awareness and raising voice against Elder Abuse. They posted Photo's with Purple Dot on all Social Media Platform including - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, ,Linkedin.

On occasion of 'World Elder Abuse Awareness Day' on 15th June 2020, INPEA in association with GAROP and Silver Innings seeks Support of all age group and gender to create awareness about elder abuse and it's prevention.

How did this happen ?  Our INPEA active member Sailesh Mishra from India who is social media expert came with idea to involve all age and gender people across globe with mass reach out, the whole program revolved around Two Hastag #StandWithOlderPersons AND #PurpleDotChallenge. Susan Somers - Inpea President and Ellen Graham- Secretariat Coordinator of Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People, approved the idea with deliberation. 

A hashtag, is sign #, is a type of metadata tag used on social networks such as Twitter and Instagram and other microblogging services. It lets users apply dynamic, user-generated tagging that helps other users easily find messages with a specific theme or content.

Some of photo's and images have been captured by Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%23PurpleDotChallenge&safe=active&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN874IN874&sxsrf=ALeKk00S8WnfZ0p5gJmVHe9Tgx8Fv5rdWQ:1603339916100&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0JzRqsfsAhVDzjgGHY1_BeUQ_AUoA3oECAQQBQ&biw=1366&bih=625

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Please find below content and image that was used for successful Program: 

  

We #StandWithOlderPersons and accept #PurpleDotChallenge to raise Awareness and Prevention of Elder Abuse.

On occasion of 'World Elder Abuse Awareness Day' on 15th June 2020, INPEA in association with GAROP and Silver Innings seeks Support of all age group and gender to create awareness about elder abuse and it's prevention.

INPEA wants social media users to post a picture of a #PurpleDot on their palm or any other place or paper and express their thoughts about Elder Abuse, Awareness, Stigma and Prevention.

INPEA has created a separate hash tag #StandWithOlderPersons to take a strong stand on Elders issues. Accept the Purple Dot Challenge and post it on your social media handles with hash tag #StandWithOlderPersons and #PurpleDotChallange

So friends let’s #StandWithOlderPersons and send your Purple dot challenge pictures with your thoughts on our / post social media accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter.

This Challenge is open from 1st June to 30th June. 

We will also post your support on our all social media accounts.

You can also forward us your pictures through E-mail at silverinnings@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 91+ 9987104.....

Creative Support by Web Solutions India.

Thanks to all for your support 

Maharashtra Agrees To Lower Age of 'Senior Citizens' To 60 Years

NAGPUR:  The Maharashtra Government today agreed to lower the age of attaining senior citizenship from 65 years to 60 years in order to bring it on par with the central government.

"The decision will come into effect from March 2016," Minister for Social Justice Rajkumar Badole announced in the state Legislative Assembly here.

During a discussion on the calling attention motion brought by Congress legislator Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and others, members cutting across party lines demanded that the state government should lower the age of citizenship to 60 years, on par with the Central Government.

"The government brought a Senior Citizen policy way back in 2013 and but it has not been implemented in letter and spirit," the members complained.

BJP member Medha Kulkarni, Congress legislator Varsha Gaikwad, Madhukar Chavan, Nabi Abdul Sattar and others insisted that there was a need for pensionable age being reduced from 65 years to 60 years on par with Central Government's Indira Gandhi Pension Scheme.

Sensing the mood of the entire House, Mr Badole agreed to bring it on par with Centre the age to 60 years and said it would be implemented from March 2016.

Vijay Wadettiwar of Congress demanded that elders, those staying in government-recognised shelter home for elders, are getting a meagre help of Rs. 900 per month for their clothing, meals, bedding and medicine which was quite insufficient. He demanded that it should be raised to Rs. 2,000 per month.

Mr Badole informed the House that there was a proposal to increase it to Rs. 1,500 per month.

Ashish Shelar of BJP sought to know whether the government has intends to observe World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and when the State Council for Older Persons would be set up.

Replying to that Mr Badole said, "a decision regarding the Awareness day will be taken in three months and the Council will be set up within one month."

Courtesy: http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/maharashtra-agrees-to-lower-age-of-senior-citizens-to-60-years-1255234

The old man on the bus : The Metrognome

To stop elder abuse, we must stop indulging in it. A new column starts today, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

by Vrushali Lad | editor@themetrognome.in

“Ae buddhhe, hatt na!” Everyone in the bus line turned to stare at the youth on the cycle, trying to get past an old man shuffling slowly to the front entrance of the bus. The man didn’t even hear the boy, intent as he was on catching the bus before it sped off. Or probably he had heard it a million times before – in our country, it is customary to address old people we don’t know as ‘buddhhas‘ or ‘buddhhis‘ – we also use these terms to address old people we don’t particularly like. Whatever the language, we find an equivalent term for ‘buddhha’ and use it with impunity.

This is where the rest of a bigger problem stems from. The derision we have for ‘oldies’ in society translates into everyday actions we don’t even think about before committing. We get impatient with senior citizens taking their time getting into the bus. We snort with ill-disguised contempt when the cashier at the supermarket has to repeat himself twice, loudly, to the old woman shopper who clearly has lost a lot of her hearing. We do not deign to explain ‘complex’ issues to our grandparents or old parents because ‘they will not understand anyway’. We feel ill-used when we have to give away a portion of our salaries every month to fund our retired parents’ homes.

In short, these old people give us several causes for complaint. Like that old man on the bus – whose big crime was that his old age had rendered him slow and incapable of quick movement.

I’m not even going to take the oft-repeated ‘Our parents did so much for us, we should repay them in their old age’ route, because it is so simplistic, it irritates me. It is also not about doing good for our elders because of the fear of karma – society tries to shame us when we behave badly towards our parents and elders with the caution, ‘Don’t forget, you are going to get old, too…’ At a broader level, the issue is not about whether we should behave ourselves in order to have a good old age for ourselves, or whether we should be grateful enough to be nice to our parents who did everything for us when we were little. It is simply about being considerate and kind.

Old age brings with it a million daily traumas – both physical and spiritual – but the most scarring one surely has to be the one that reminds the person every day, “You are useless…you can no longer work and contribute to the family, your ideas are outdated, you need to sit in a corner and think about the afterlife, your life is over…” I can’t think of another humiliation worse than being relegated to the ‘back benches’ at home – because you no longer earn a salary, you are no longer an important component in the family’s scheme of things. Your opinions are considered out of sync with the times, you are often talked at by your own children and grandchildren, and the physical problems you face – loss of hearing, loss of memory, loss of mobility – are often the subjects of many jokes in the family and neighbourhood.

And yet we take a moral high ground when we hear stories of other senior citizens being beaten or tortured in their homes, at the hands of their family members. We outrage on hearing accounts of an aged couple being disowned by their children because the parents refused to part with their property while they were still alive. We ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ photographs of abandoned senior citizens and comment on the pictures saying, ‘If you can’t take care of your parents, you should just die at birth’ or ‘How can society not have a conscience, yaar? Are we made of stone?’

And then most of us forget to call our mothers once a day, just to remind them they are in our thoughts and that we are safe (which is what they’re always worried about). We take our parents to the restaurant around the corner (where we often go) on their anniversary ‘to celebrate’ because we were too busy to plan a grand celebration. We cut their calls during a busy day and forget to call back. We yell at them to not disturb us when we are working or hanging out with friends. We forget to tell them important things in our lives. We ‘forget’ to pay their bills, knowing fully well they are too embarassed to remind us. Or we assume that they wouldn’t like to try out a new health club that we enrolled our kids and spouse in, because senior citizens are ‘too old’ to exercise or swim. Or when, in their brain-addled state, they shout at us and we shout back, instead of biting our tongue because they are not in their senses and they don’t mean to shout.

We are curt, impolite, rude and inconsiderate in a million different ways every day, all because we know somewhere in our hearts that ‘Whatever happens, my parents will always forgive me…’ I am guilty of all of these behaviours, unthinkingly and selfishly, and so are you. But it’s never too late. Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and we can start setting things right.

When we say ‘abuse’, it brings to mind images of beatings and verbal lashings – and many senior citizens undergo these on a daily basis around the world. But what about the silent abuse we mete out to our elders every day?

Abuse takes form in several ways, and it always starts with the small things. Let’s give our elders the respect and dignity that we expect the world to show us, and many things will begin to fall into place one by one. There’s no need for grand gestures – though those would be nice, too. I think it helps if we just keep in touch. Talk to them and listen. Laugh at the stories they tell even though you’ve heard them since childhood. If you believe in karma and all that jazz, may be your children will treat you well in your old age. At the very least, you’ll spend some really great times with an elder you know – and I find that they do have some really awesome stories to tell.

‘Grey Space’ is a weekly column on senior citizen issues. If you have an anecdote, or legal information, or anything you feel is useful to senior citizens, caregivers and the society at large, feel free to get it published in this space. Write to editor@themetrognome.in or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Themetrognome.in and we will publish your account.

(Picture courtesy udaipurtimes.com, www.tapovan.org.in. Images are used for representational purpose only)

Article Courtesy : http://www.themetrognome.in/grey-space/the-old-man-on-the-bus 

"Peeche ka Kamra" - A Poem by Anshuman Bhagwat - WEAAD2015

1. Published on Jun 15, 2015

1. 
   

1. This  Video is created by Silver Inning Foundation, an NGO working with Senior Citizens since 2008, on Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) on 15th June 2015, in association with 'International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) to sensitize all stake holders and to work towards creating a Generation Friendly World.
   
   This poem is about a man who is doing everything he possibly can to improve his present and future but dismisses his old parents to the background because they could not keep up with his modern updated life style. But he is unaware to the fact that his own children are learning from him and in his old age he will be exiled to the same old back rooms that he dismissed his parents to.
   
   We would like to Thank the following for their invaluable contribution to make this happen :
   Anshuman Bhagwat - Poet
   Darrpan Mehta - Narration
   Hira Mehta - English Subtitles
   Ramaa Subramaniam - Coordination
   Sugar Mediaz - Audio Video Production
   
   Our Partners - INPEA, Silver Innings Helpline, A1 Snehajali, PushpaMa Foundation and The Metrognome
   Jeroninio Almeida and iCONGO for support
   All our Elders and their Families for their support for making this video.
   
   Old age is a beautiful stage in every person's life and an undeniable truth of life too.In old age physical strengths reduce but mind and heart are brimming with hopes and aspirations. But at this stage if the elderly are relegated to the back rooms their remaining life becomes hell.
   
   But young ones who do this to their old parents should remember this, that one day their own children who are observing the treatment meted out to their grand parents may think that this is the way it should be and do the same to their parents in their old age and dismiss you to the back room of their homes and lives.
   So if you want to make your future better, give your old parents respect and comfort in their old age.
   
   #‎WEAAD‬ is marked each year on June 15 as an official ‪#‎UnitedNations‬ International Day acknowledging the significance of elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue. Since 2006, communities throughout the country and around the world have used this day to raise the visibility of elder abuse, by sharing information about abuse and neglect and promoting resources and services that can help increase seniors’ safety and well-being.
   
   ‪#‎INPEA‬, Elder Abuse Awareness networks and organizations across globe are planning multiple WEAAD activities across the countries to mobilize community action and engage people in discussions on how to promote dignity and respect of older adults. The key objective of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is to raise awareness of elder abuse (which encompasses neglect or mistreatment) throughout the world.
   #WEAAD2015 #EldersMatter #INPEA #SilverInnings #SeniorCitizens #ElderAbuse #WearPurple #Ageing #Aging #Gerontology #Geriatric #Poem #World #UN
   
   Disclaimer : The images used are for representation only.
   Photos & Video Copyright - © Silver Innings 2015

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, What you can do?

The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) was founded in 1997 and is dedicated to global dissemination of information as part of its commitment to world-wide prevention of elder abuse.  The United Nations International Plan of Action adopted by all countries in Madrid, April 2002, clearly recognizes the importance of elder abuse and puts it in the framework of Universal Human Rights. #INPEA is dedicated to supporting the plan of action. As part of INPEA's research agenda on 15^th June 2006 we launched a World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) in partnership and collaboration with interested individuals, agencies, organizations, NGO's, governments and corporation. 

Some of those who had offered support in 2006 are :  the International Association of Gerontology (IAG), The World Health Organization ( #WHO ), The International Federation of Aging ( #IFA ), Help Age International, Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), the Subcommittee on Elder Abuse of the UN NGO Committee on Ageing, International Longevity Center (ILC – USA), American Association of Retired Persons ( #AARP ), Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse ( #CNPEA ) and the Ontario Seniors Secretariat/Government of Ontario.

#WEAAD is marked each year on June 15 as an official #UnitedNations International Day acknowledging the significance of elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue. Since 2006, communities throughout the country and around the world have used this day to raise the visibility of elder abuse, by sharing information about abuse and neglect and promoting resources and services that can help increase seniors’ safety and well-being.

#INPEA and Elder Abuse networks and organizations across globe are planning multiple WEAAD activities across the countries to mobilize community action and engage people in discussions on how to promote dignity and respect of older adults.

The key objective of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is to raise awareness of elder abuse (which encompasses neglect and mal- or mistreatment) throughout the world.

Join the Movement – Get Involved!

We encourage everyone to get involved and to raise awareness about World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. A wide variety of events and activities can be planned by organizations and individuals alike. Here are a few examples of what you can do:

Host:

A public awareness event geared toward seniors

Community Walks

A High Tea

A purple dinner

A flash mob event

Intergeneration event

Discussion/ Debates

A conference or training, focused on elder abuse awareness and available community resources.

A public awareness activity that includes politicians, seniors, local programs, survivors of abuse, and others

 

Communicate:

Send out a press release, hold a press conference, or submit an editorial to discuss elder abuse awareness and prevention efforts.

Develop a PSA on elder abuse with a local TV or radio station.

Ask local leaders, the Mayor, MP, MPP to release a Proclamation declaring June 15 as Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

Create a poster on elder abuse or use a poster created by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.

Harness the power of social media to raise WEAAD’s profile and broadcast news of various events

Educate:

Yourself and others about elder abuse

Use graphics on your website, blog, or in your email signature block, to draw awareness to elder abuse and prevention efforts

Do:

Random acts of kindness

Tweet and Post your Events with HASTAG  #WEAAD2015  #INPEA  #EldersMatter   @sbsomersINPEA

INPEA

# WEAAD2015 Global Team

Website: www.inpea.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inpea

Twitter: @sbsomersINPEA

Email: sbsomers5@aol.com

Posted by Sailesh Mishra

Social Media Coordinator INPEA

Founder President, #SilverInnings #SilverInningsHelpline 

www.silverinnings.com

Vrushali Lad 

http://www.themetrognome.in/ 

#TheMetrognome 

International Day against Elder Abuse WEAAD 2012 : AGE calls for an EU quality framework for long-term care

 

Press release 14/06/12 - Stop elder abuse: AGE calls for an EU quality framework for long-term care

International Day against Elder Abuse (en français plus bas)

Stop elder abuse: AGE calls for an EU quality framework for long-term care to support the wellbeing and dignity of older people

“With the ageing of the population and the major social and economic reforms this demographic change will entail, finding ways of preventing elder abuse and ensuring a dignified life in old age will be a major challenge across the EU and needs be at the core of the current EU active and healthy ageing policies”, highlights Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Secretary-General, on the eve of the International Day against Elder Abuse on 15 June.

In the last few years, the issue of abuse and negligence against vulnerable older people has gained importance at European and national levels. Public authorities, policy makers, care providers and end users’ organisations are now aware that elder abuse and neglect is a serious infringement to human rights that can no longer be tolerated, and measures must be put in place to ensure that older persons are adequately protected and can enjoy a dignified old age even when they become dependent on others for care and assistance.

We all know cases of older people abused and neglected, and these poor practices can be found in all EU countries and in all care settings, at home, in the community or in institutions. Some of these cases are examples of intentional abuse and neglect but the vast majority of them reflect just unintentional ‘bad care’ which affect the wellbeing and dignity of older vulnerable persons. However, many positive experiences and (real) success stories exist as well across Europe.  Most of the time, carers - both formal and informal - are very devoted and go out of their way to provide the best care they can to the older person in need of assistance. 

In our view the best way to prevent ‘bad care’ and elder abuse is by improving the quality of care and support we provide to older people in need of care and assistance. As part of the EU funded WeDO project, AGE and a group of partners from 12 countries, are developing a European Quality Framework for Long-Term Care which includes quality principles and recommendations for the implementation of these principles which are based on the European Charter of Rights and Responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance, developed in 2010. The European Quality Framework for Long-term care will be presented at the European Parliament on 14 November at the European Parliament in Brussels.

About AGE Platform Europe:

AGE Platform Europe (formerly AGE - the European Older People's Platform) is a European network of organisation of people aged 50+ and represents over 30 million older people in Europe. AGE aims to voice and promote the interests of the 150 million inhabitants aged 50+ in the European Union and to raise awareness of the issues that concern them most. www.age-platform.eu

AGE Platform Europe is the coordinator of the WeDO project which develops the EU quality framework for older people in need of care and assistance. More information at: www.wedo-partnership.eu.

For more information, please contact:

Anne Mélard

Information and Communication Officer

AGE Platform Europe

www.age-platform.eu

Tel: +32 2 280 14 70

Fax: +32 2 280 15 22

E-mail: anne.melard@age-platform.eu

Or

Maude Luherne

WeDO project coordinator

AGE Platform Europe

www.wedo-partnership.eu

maude.luherne@age-platform.eu

 Brussels, 14 June 2012