Política de velhice. Análise e perspectivas

Abstract

The social policy concerning the problems the problems of the elderly has a recent history in most of the countries. In Portugal, the same socio-economic factors responsible for the emigration which accelerated the demographic ageing were also responsible for the delay in the taking of appropriate measures, thus increasing the complexity of the existing problems in the 70 and 80 decades, such as: low level of income in the elderly, resulting from the active life conditionalisms and from the weak social protection system up to 1974; a deficient health system increasing the pressure on the health care services, with a tendency to worsen due to the raising number of old people of a more advanced age; an increase of the inactive life period without any actual opportunities to participate in the social and cultural life. Therefore, the formulation of a policy relative to old people should lead to the taking of measures aiming to overcome the problems affecting the present generation of aged people and to prevent and/or to reduce situations leading to a deterioration and/or impairment of ageing. This multifaceted challenge demands, undoubtfully, an inter-sectors coordination and adjustment to reduce inequalities, as far as people and space concerned. The path already travelled, however, has shown that the implemented measures were, essentially, within the scope of the Social Security field, whether in what concerned social security systems or social welfare, namely the responses relative to equipments and services. The results so far achieved are still quite far from the legitimate expectations of the Portuguese aged people namely in what concerns some situations which, for their high risk and complexity (people in lack of autonomy), need immediate and effective responses and, most of all, humanly acceptable. Accordingly,, it is proposed the formulation of a multidimensional and plurisectorial policy for the elderly having as a main purpose the social integration of the aged generations by improving their quality life. Consequently, along with the priority that, at present, must be given to the adequated, humanized attendance of situations of loss or risk losing autonomy of individuals, it is understood as one of the essential vectors of the policy, the development of preventive measures based in the analysis of social, economical and cultural factors which accelerate aging process together with the prospective study of different generations that represent the Portuguese society of the 80’s.