The aged care sector has faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with multiple losses that hit the sector first, some countries have joined forces in favor of immediate reforms in senior citizen benefits and services.

They have gone beyond demonstrating resilience and resilience in the midst of a health crisis, but much more by laying the foundations for a quality of life plan for all. Their ultimate goal was not temporary, short-term relief from the ailments that afflict the sector, but to pass on to the younger generation a sustainable plan consistent with statistics showing increased life expectancy and ongoing care needs for an ever-increasing number of people around the world. .

In the spring of 2019 in Greece, the election campaign of Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised our senior fellow citizens a strategy that no previous government has prioritized, much less at the level of national planning. Of course, the obligations on this issue referred exclusively to passive goods and services for citizens in connection with the possibility of changing things in such a way that older people still have a voice in managing their own lives and, above all, their own lives. pension assets. What really mattered, however, was that the then prime ministerial candidate raised an issue that Greece never did anything about.

The outbreak of the coronavirus has exposed all the gaps in social security, so that the previous lack of a national strategy looks like a colossal failure of the state to respond to crises after they have occurred. For example, the healthcare system was brought to its knees so that centralized care in nursing homes became impossible (an election pledge) because all medical staff were leaving en masse to serve the hospitals. To be fair, this problem has arisen in many countries, and to a much greater extent, but we cannot use arguments such as “we are doing well, we are not yet Sweden”. In the first months of 2022, the tragic story of the Chania Nursing Home people and the criminal consequences of its management reminded us all that there is a problem waiting for serious answers: the profile of an aging person with growing care and treatment. needs, a display of his course, how he is supported and the services he needs, all in the dark. The Eurocarers report states that “Greece does not currently have reliable, unified official services for the elderly. Existing services are targeted exclusively at the poorest.” Added to the above is the fact that the public debate about the Third Age never continued.

On the other hand, caring for the elderly and managing their pensions are closely related issues. Traditionally, Greek families take full responsibility for caring for their elderly members for many reasons, one of which is that the latter’s pension functions as “income” and is valid in households that have been left jobless by the years of crisis. The measures taken in Greece are not making it easier for our elderly fellow citizens to take charge of their lives, especially in a country where governments fail over time or keep promises too late. The evidence we have from other countries shows that good care plans are those that exercise less government control over how pensions are planned and paid, while at the same time giving people more investment freedom to plan for their old age. Elderly care can be a long-term economic development tool that also creates intergenerational bonds as it changes how people perceive and position themselves in relation to care. The reforms in Greece, however, are based on the arbitrary interpretation by their party and academic proponents that the market and competition are contrary to the broader social consensus, thereby locking pensioners into the state apparatus on the basis of a fiscal policy that does not respect elementary economic rules. and principles.

We should also note that changes in the welfare sector are needed not only to ensure the quality of life of the elderly, but also to make the country attractive as a European retirement destination, like other countries, according to the World Economic Forum. which will unite various ministries in a common goal.

It is expected that the policy of social assistance for the elderly will be in the spotlight in the coming years.

* Steve Bakalis is a former professor at Victoria University Melbourne.

* Despina Limniotaki is a social psychologist.