Friday, 31 January 2014 - 04:33
Report separate admittance elderly couples
The Ombudsman for the elderly calls on people to report cases of elderly couples being separated because of an admittance in a home or institution.
Jack Stikvoort started a Facebook page to draw attention to the fact that his in-laws were separated after 60 years of marriage,
Pieter and Coby Schouten
Facebook because his father-in-law had to be admitted to a nursing home with Alzheimer, but his mother-in-law was still on a waiting list. The page made the news and caused a stir. In a Twitter response PvdA leader Diederik Samsom said couples had the right to stay together by law. However, from responses on the Facebook page and the articles in the news it became abundantly clear that it is more practice than exception that elderly couples get separated at some point, and everybody assumed it was ordained by the law. The Ombudsman for the elderly wants to collect information about cases to understand the problem and how to deal with it.
Facebook because his father-in-law had to be admitted to a nursing home with Alzheimer, but his mother-in-law was still on a waiting list. The page made the news and caused a stir. In a Twitter response PvdA leader Diederik Samsom said couples had the right to stay together by law. However, from responses on the Facebook page and the articles in the news it became abundantly clear that it is more practice than exception that elderly couples get separated at some point, and everybody assumed it was ordained by the law. The Ombudsman for the elderly wants to collect information about cases to understand the problem and how to deal with it.