It has been a year since the Council of Europe condemned the French state for violating the rights of people with disabilities and their families. COFACE members Unapei and APF France Handicap along with other NGOs are urgently reminding the French government of their obligations to protect people with disabilities and their families.
For months, COFACE Disability Platform, Unapei, and other solidarity and healthcare associations have voiced concerns about the conditions of non-profit establishments and services implementing French local government policies. Alongside Uniopss (National Interfederal Union of Non-Profit Health and Social Organizations), Unapei is launching a petition, “For Dignified Support: Let’s Sound the Alarm Together.” It urges everyone to take action, including pushing for these topics to be discussed in the social life councils of establishments.
Persons with disabilities have the right to live independently, included in the community and to family life. To mark the 2023 UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the COFACE Disability Platform places the spotlight on family carers. Their crucial role can significantly boost the fulfillment of the rights outlined in the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, provided they receive adequate support. A COFACE Disability “Thematic Note” was developed to contribute to policy discussions and help find constructive solutions.
Principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights stresses: the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular homecare and community-based services. Since its adoption in 2017, the European Union has been looking more intensively at the topic of Long-Term Care (LTC), most notably with the adoption in 2022 of the European Care Strategy and the Council Recommendation on Long-Term Care. In this important time, COFACE Disability Platform launch this thematic note to spark the debate on the diversity of family carers. While the lion’s share of family carers are currently of working age and need urgent actions to support them.
Everywhere, organisations have been raising the alarm about the shortage of care services, professional care staff, insufficient support to informal carers, and the dangerous and immediate consequences for the entire society. On the first UN International Day of Care and Support, 17 European organisations call for urgent measures to address underinvestment and staff shortages in long-term care.
This public study session organised by the European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care. It aims to bring together professionals, persons concerned by deinstitutionalisation, their families and representative organisations to discuss the shift toward meaningful inclusion in the community.
Unpaid care duties are key to gender gaps in the labour market. As illustrated in a report published by the European Commission, across the Member States, care responsibilities are equally shared between women and men only in about one-third of families. The interplay between labour market and household conditions may create vicious cycles.
Trigger warning: homicide-suicide
Genitori Tosti, COFACE Disability member organisation, calls upon the Italian Government and Parliament to take swift and responsible action to finalise the draft legislation on the recognition and support of family caregivers and to provide all the services necessary to ensure that those who care for their family members are never left alone.
It could be a good brain-teaser to ask what is the occupation of the tens of millions of people in Europe today, whose daily work time can span over 24 hours and is not only essential but also life-saving. We could not even say that this type of work is underpaid as it is, in many cases, not paid at all. And although it is not necessarily undervalued, it is clear that this essential work is taken for granted. For COFACE Families Europe, who represents the interests of families across Europe, the answer to this brainteaser is evident.
Unaf and APF France handicap published the results of a survey on carers in relation to inclusive housing which formulate recommendations for stakeholders in the field and public authorities.
In the run-up to the 2022 International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the COFACE Disability Platform for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families is launching a policy brief looking at how children with disabilities are represented in recent EU Social Policy Frameworks. With this brief COFACE Disability wants to launch a reflection on the intersection between disability and age and how to integrate it into policies and programmes. For this EU Year of Youth COFACE Disability has focused this brief on Children with Disabilities and their families.
COFACE’s member CEAFA has recently published its manual for the training and support of carers of people with dementia that was developed within the framework of the Spanish Strategy for Neurodegenerative Diseases of the NHS and reviewed by CEAFA.
Forgotten, family carers lived through a major lack of recognition during this pandemic crisis.
We live in a society which pays enormous attention to economic growth and the wellbeing of our economy.
