מדובר בעולמות תוכן משפטיים שאף על פי שאינם מתייחדים לזקנים דווקא, הם באים לידי ביטוי הלכה למעשה במיוחד בגילים המתקדמים. עולמות תוכן אלה מכילים סכסוכים משפטיים הנוגעים להיבטי משפחה ולטיפול וקשורים למשל לסידורים מוסדיים, לצוואות ולירושות, לתכנון כלכלי ולתכנון רפואי בשלבי החיים האחרונים ולהסכמי טיפול בגיל המבוגר.

תכליתו של מאמר זה היא להציג טיעון הגורס כי מן הראוי להעמיק את ההכרה בכלי הגישור כאמצעי בעל חשיבות רבה ליישוב סכסוכים הנוגעים במיוחד לחייהם של זקנים, ולהרחיב את השימוש בו בהקשר של יחסי הטיפול והדאגה לגופם, לרכושם ולאורחות חייהם. טיעון זה מופנה לא רק למערכת השיפוט, אלא גם כלפי קשת רחבה של בעלי מקצוע טיפוליים, הנמצאים בקהילה ובמסגרות מוסדיות, והנאלצים לא אחת להתמודד עם מחלוקות שבין זקנים ובין בני משפחתם או עם מי שמטפלים בהם הלכה למעשה.

Methods. Primary data were collected from the responses of subjects who participated in two national phone surveys, conducted in Israel over a period of two years. The final sample included 372 participants aged 65 and older, who believed they had reasons to complain about their HMO.

Results. Of the 372 participants with cause to complain, only 23% (N = 87) had actually complained (compared to 33% in the younger population) and only 35.7% knew how to file a complaint (compared to 42% in the younger population). Subjects who were 75 years old and above, with below average income, had 3.9 times higher probability for not complaining than people under 65. No statistically significant differences were found between the older participants and the younger population regarding the reasons for complaints or the procedures for making them.

Discussion. Recommendations are made for the recognition of the older population as a unique group within the health care system and for developing organizational mechanisms for capturing their unheard voices by HMOs.

This research, in using qualitative research methods, tried to understand and explore the meaning of the rehabilitation and return to the community under the new legislative setting from the view point and experiences of the participants themselves. Fifteen schizophrenic patients were interviewed in this research. All participants were institutionalized in the past and released for rehabilitation in the community under Israel’s new act. The data was collected after all interviews were recorded and analyzed.

The qualitative data analysis exposed a continuous process of four conceptual categories: 1.Viewing institutionalization as transformation from the “normal” to the “abnormal”; 2.Viewing the institutionalization as a process moving from the “abnormal” back to the “normal”; 3.Viewing the return to the community as “re-birth”; and finally, 4. Viewing the community-based rehabilitation as reality which enables normality along side the mental illness.

In the discussion, this research presents a theoretical model which presents the meanings and experiences of the participants as a continuity, in which the whole process of moving from the community to the institution and back to the community as one continuous process integrated in each other. Within this continuing process, the community-based rehabilitation legislation serves as a key component, well integrated within the whole continuum that allows people with mental illness to return to “normality” within the community.

The findings show that aging as a gay man or lesbian means living with many contradictions. On one hand, this study shows that in Israel the aging gays and lesbians are likely to suffer from a double stigma: from homophobia and ageism. The interesting finding of this study is that older gays and lesbians also suffer from a third type of oppression: ageism within the gay-lesbian community. In addition, the study’s findings indicate that the common image of older gays and older lesbians as being depressed, lonely, despairing and inactive sexually is empirically groundless. Old age, it turns out, has some liberating aspects, including liberation from sexual influences and from multiple personal and social obligations.

One cannot ignore the argument that genetic testing for AD benefits society in general – after all, every individual who undergoes a test for AD contributes to scientific knowledge of the disease. However, this goes counter to the prevailing liberalism of Western society, which puts the rights of the individual before the general good. Future scientific breakthroughs and technological developments will no doubt prompt further public debate on other ethical dilemmas, some even more complex.

The aim of this article is to consider the ethical aspects of offering genetic counseling for AD. To do this, a representative hypothetical case is analyzed using applied ethics. As this case analysis demonstrates, there is no moral justification, in light of the limited genetic understanding available, for performing widespread genetic testing in order to alleviate fears for the future and, in any case, such tests are illegal without informed consent.

This article presents a different understanding of the place of municipal government in Canada. The goal of this article is to present an original legal-policy argument: It is time for local communities and local governments in Canada to use their legal authorities in order to enact local by-laws that define and establish the rights of their older citizens. The argument maintains that local municipalities hold the legal power and the social potential of making a significant contribution in the legal sphere to the promotion of the rights of older people, and that this power has been so far neglected.

The article supports the argument on three pillars: (1) an empirical analysis of existing by-laws in different municipalities across Canada; (2) a socio-legal analysis of the advantages of municipal law as a tool for social change; (3) a case analysis of a recent municipal legal reform in the province of British Columbia.

The Rights of Older Persons provides a unique collection of all the main, important international documents relating to the status of the aged and the phenomenon of ageing at the international level. For the first time, readers, the aged and professionals from all over the world can obtain a comprehensive picture of the worldwide activities in the field of international law and ageing.