A European Care Strategy
At the end of 2022, the European Union adopted a European Care Strategy. This should cover the need for action for people with care responsibilities and people in need of care, from childcare to long-term care. The aim is to strengthen gender equality and social fairness.Please note that the focus issue is only published in German.
Social aspects of the UN Agenda 2030
Elderly people are explicitly mentioned in seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the sense of the commitment "leave no one behind". This is shown by brief research of the Observatory on the social aspects of the UN Agenda 2030 in March 2021. However, within the national sustainability strategies of the EU Member States for the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030, concrete targets and indicators in the field of policies for elderly people are mostly missing. In some cases, data systems are used for policy decisions that exclude people outside the age group 15-64. Among other reasons, this is due to a poor data situation regarding older and very old people.Civil society organisations and older people's interest groups appeal: Sustainable development should also be shaped in the context of population ageing and demographic change, and elderly people, in particular, should be given greater attention in all areas. An important organisation in this field is the Stakeholder Group on Ageing (SGA). It brings together global and national stakeholders for elderly people and is part of the "Major Groups and Other Stakeholders" that accompany the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda.
Cross-border cooperation to safeguard services of general interest
As a result of the effects of demographic change, the safeguarding of services of general interest faces challenges in many German regions. Local authorities are tasked with developing solutions to these challenges and with adapting local structures to current and future circumstances. Cross-border cooperation is one way of tackling these challenges together with municipalities and regions in neighbouring countries. The Observatory examines the opportunities, potential disadvantages, forms, obstacles and success factors of cross-border cooperation for border regions.
Volunteering in hospice and palliative care
Demographic developments in Europe pose challenges to hospice and palliative care, especially with regards to an increasing number of people to be accompanied. Volunteering, therefore, plays an important role in hospice and palliative care. Against this background, a working paper discusses i.a. the following questions: What does the organisation and coordination of volunteering in hospice and palliative care in France and Poland look like? What are the tasks of volunteers? How are they trained? And how can volunteers be recruited and tied to their volunteering work in the future?
Migration of care workers from the Visegrád-States
Given the importance of migration for the sustainability of formal healthcare provision, this paper examines the main migration trends from the new EU Member States to Germany in the healthcare sector. It also sheds light on how the need for healthcare services in selected regions of Eastern Europe is likely to evolve and discusses the key factors responsible for intra-European migration in the healthcare sector.
Dementia
The risk of falling ill to dementia increases rapidly with age. An increase in such diseases can be expected due to rising life expectancies and the associated rise in the number of very old people: experts assume that the number of people with dementia across the world could triple by 2050. Dementia will become a great challenge facing health and social services in Europe. To address this, among other things, numerous European countries have developed specific national dementia strategies to deal with social and political issues and the consequences for health.
Furthermore, the topic "Avoiding elder abuse in the home care of people with dementia“ was the focus of an expert meeting organized by the Observatory and the question of prevention and intervention measures in other European countries.
