Questioning Segregation of People Living with Dementia in Australia: An International Human Rights Approach to Care Homes

Linda Steele, Kate Swaffer, Lyn Phillipson and Richard Fleming
Additional contact information
Linda Steele: Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
Kate Swaffer: Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Lyn Phillipson: Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Richard Fleming: Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia

Laws, 2019, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: This article explores how care homes—and, specifically, their common features such as dementia care units and locked doors and gates—impact on the human rights of people living with dementia. We suggest that congregation, separation and confinement of people living with dementia by the care home built environment constitute ‘segregation’. In the specific context of residential aged care facilities in Australia, we draw on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) to frame this segregation as an injustice. We focus on the rights to non-discrimination (Article 5), liberty and security of the person (Article 14), equality before the law (Article 12), accessibility (Article 9), and independent living and community inclusion (Article 19). Our analysis shows that addressing segregation must involve structural and resource reforms that are transformative in bringing about new ways of living and relating to each other. Such reforms are directed towards providing meaningful alternatives and appropriate supports to make choices from a range of alternative residency and support options, and building communities that are free from ableism, ageism and other systems of oppression that contribute to confinement and segregation.

Keywords: dementia; care homes; aged care; human rights; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; segregation; deprivation of liberty; institutionalisation; accessibility; discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/8/3/18/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/8/3/18/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:8:y:2019:i:3:p:18-:d:257838

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().