Book
French
ID: <
10670/1.aihqve>
Abstract
The isolation and loneliness of older people can have serious public health consequences, as we saw in the summer of 2003 in France. But the problem is far beyond that, and the question arises of the place that our liberal but ageing societies place on their older people. What should the State do or not do? What is the role of its services and the role of associations, with their poorly paid employees, often in precarious situations, who replace them? What about the basic unit of society, the family, whose recent demographic and structural developments must lead to rethinking or even inventing support for carers? What is the share of solidarity in the neighbourhood which, as a result of social changes (urban housing, breakdown of families, disappearance of small shops, etc.), has also changed? This book is the result of the work carried out by different research teams under an action research programme in France and in three countries of southern Europe. The concrete issues raised in the programme should make it possible to identify opportunities for action in the City for the best of the oldest and most vulnerable of its members.