The following texts are taken from the website of 50+ Hellas, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 and based in Halandri and they are dealing with the rights of people over 50, through services and advocacy on the improvement of their quality of life, considering all the challenges that they are called to face, such as care for the elderly in their families, employment insecurity due to age-based discrimination, digital illiteracy and others.
In the framework of the European Semester for the “Europe 2020 Strategy” and the Madrid International Action Plan of Action on Ageing of the UN, and considering the lack of a comprehensive National Action Plan to address the cross-sectoral consequences of demographic ageing in Greece, 50+ Hellas took the initiative to make some concrete policy proposals.
From these proposals, we are referencing here those that correspond to the profile also of those over 60 and are also similar or complementary to those of the AGE Platform. These are the following (chosen from over 50 different proposals):
- Incentives to stay in work, full or part-time, adjustment of wages in line with pensions. As mentors, advisors, part-time workers, older people can not only find satisfaction and income, but also contribute to the national economy through their work and pay income tax.
- Participation of workers over 40 in lifelong learning. Develop public investment in older workers.
- Health: Promoting healthy and active ageing to maintain maximum autonomy and increase Healthy Life Years (HLY)
- Integrated Long-Term Care – ensuring support and good quality care for older people who are not self-sufficient, with the aim of integrating informal/family and formal/professional care into a single integrated long-term care provision.
- Improving the quality of life of both older citizens and their carers.
- Improving their health status through the prevention of diseases and further development of rehabilitation programmes.
- Developing an integrated long-term care system and ensuring the necessary conditions for health and care systems to be socially and economically sustainable.
- Develop a National Integrated Long-Term Care Policy that links informal (e.g. family) and professional care provision in a single integrated care provision for older people and for those who need long-term care and assistance.
- Increase and expand health and social care services for comprehensive care throughout the country, with 24-hour coverage, meeting the real needs of dependent people and their family carers.
- Professional strengthening and recognition of “carers of the elderly” through participation in training and certification programmes for carers, including migrant carers.
- Recognition of up to 2 years of work to provide care for relatives of dependent elderly and/or disabled persons (similar to maternity leave), to ensure pension coverage and social security for family carers.
- Ensuring the sustainability of insurance and pension systems for current and future generations is of great importance for all
- Tackling poverty among older people, whose situation has worsened with the crisis (where poverty is not only about low income, but also about limited access to services and goods)
- Ensuring appropriate structures to stimulate employment and remove inequalities in the labour market, raising awareness for changing stereotypes, evaluating policies with an impact on older people in order to enhance access to the labour market and improve the quality of working life should also be key objectives of the Older People’s Policy.
- Establish a network of all active lifelong learning stakeholders as an advisory group on training and lifelong learning issues.
- and many many others.
To learn more on 50+ Hellas and their activities, positions, and services, visit the links below (information mainly in Greek)
Main website: https://www.50plus.gr/
About 50+ Hellas: https://www.50plus.gr/en/50plus-hellas/
Theses and Interventions – 50and Hellas (2019) – Text with the positions and proposals of 50 and Hellas for Active and Healthy Ageing: 50plus.gr…θέσεις-και-παρεμβάσεις-50και-ελλάς-2019