Greece’s elderly being left behind by a failing system

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Illegal, unlicensed eldercare facilities operating successful apartments and hotels crossed Greece are exposing a deepening situation successful semipermanent attraction for the elderly, authorities say.

The latest lawsuit – a foul-smelling Athens flat where malnourished aged residents showed visible signs of fearfulness and neglect – followed a akin raid days earlier successful Rethymno, Crete. Experts warn these cases correspond lone the extremity of the iceberg.

Greece has astir 16,500 eldercare beds for a colonisation successful which 23% are implicit 65 – the second-lowest stock successful the EU. Licensed facilities complaint €1,000-2,000 monthly, pushing families toward cheaper amerciable alternatives. Public facilities are virtually nonexistent.

“These phenomena are the effect of an absent semipermanent attraction system,” said Maria Karagiannidou, a researcher astatine the London School of Economics’ Care Policy and Evaluation Center, “and will turn if thing changes.”

Enforcement is woefully undermanned. The Attica Regional Authority, for example, has conscionable 61 κοινωνικά inspectors who oversee 1,544 facilities of each kinds.