Challenges and delays in the reform of care for the dependent elderly
Two years after Law 33/2023 was passed, there is a struggle to simplify procedures and guarantee home services for the frail elderly
Sometimes, observing everyday life teaches us more than books. One of us has two neighbours of different ages, one 67 years old and the other 89 years old with Alzheimer's disease. Knowing their respective situations, a question arises: why are politicians so concerned about increasing the retirement age of the 67-year-old gentleman by just three months while they quietly ignore the plight of the 89-year-old with Alzheimer's and his family?
The question touches a mystery of politics in Italy. The issue of elderly people who are no longer self-sufficient - i.e. unable to carry out the activities of daily living independently - brings together some 10 million people: 4 million directly affected, their families and professionals. Care for the elderly, however, has not yet managed to become a political priority.
Hopes for change are pinned on the first national reform of the sector, Law 33 passed in March 2023. A reform with an ambitious goal: to structurally change our welfare system, conceived when there were far fewer dependent elderly people than today, in order to make it capable of responding to their increasingly widespread presence.
Unfortunately, however, these hopes currently seem far from being fulfilled. Indeed, two years and eight months after the reform was approved, its implementation is encountering difficulties that affect all key points. Let us look at them.
First, the procedures. Applying for public assistance, at present, forces families and elderly people to wander through a multitude of counters, places and locations, dealing with a veritable Babel of different procedures. The simplification of this bureaucratic maze is a key objective of the reform. The draft implementing decree on the subject, on the other hand, determines more complicated procedures than at present, even increasing the number of steps to be taken for those concerned and families. Thus, a legislative measure that was created to simplify things risks entangling them further.
