Right of Seniors with Advanced Age

Are seniors and people with serious illnesses entitled to priority procedural care? Hewdy Lobo, Psychiatrist In Brazil there are thousands of elderly people and people with serious illnesses, which are why they make the lives of these people very borderline, and for this reason the Brazilian Legal System has created methods that aim to make life easier for these people. Let's see below who has these preference rights and what these preferences are. According to Law No. 10,741, of October 1, 2003 in its article 2: Art. The elderly enjoy all fundamental rights inherent to the human person, without prejudice to the full protection provided for in this Law, ensuring, by law or by other means, all opportunities and facilities to preserve their physical health and mental and its moral, intellectual, spiritual and social improvement, in conditions of freedom and dignity. It is not the fact that a human being is of advanced age that he has no rights in relation to other people. In this way, the Elderly Statute came to ensure these rights that the elderly have. What are the Priorities of Seniors? According to the aforementioned Law, in the sole paragraph of Article 3, the elderly are guaranteed priority which includes: I – immediate and individual preferential care with public and private service providers to the population; II – preference in the formulation and execution of specific public social policies; III – privileged allocation of public resources in areas related to the protection of the elderly; IV – enabling alternative forms of participation, occupation and interaction between the elderly and other generations; V – prioritization of care for the elderly by their own family, to the detriment of asylum care, except for those who do not have it or lack the conditions to maintain their own survival; VI – training and recycling of human resources in the areas of geriatrics and gerontology and in the provision of services to the elderly; VII – establishment of mechanisms that favor the dissemination of educational information on the biopsychosocial aspects of aging; VIII – guaranteed access to the local health and social assistance services network. IX – priority in receiving income tax refunds. That said, one sees the concern of the aforementioned Law regarding the social well-being of the elderly, thus facilitating their lives in society with these priority services, as they do not have the same physical conditions as a result of advanced age. to young people and adults. As a result of old age, do the elderly have procedural preferences? The answer to that question is yes. Since the aforementioned Law has this provision contained in Article 71, let's see: Art. 71. Priority is ensured in the processing of processes and procedures and in the execution of acts and judicial proceedings in which a person aged over 60 (sixty) years of age appears as a party or intervener, in any instance. Therefore, people aged 60 years or over have the right to priority in the processing of cases to which they are parties, and this right is ensured in any procedural instance. What should the Interested Party do to Obtain this Priority? Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Article 71 of the Elderly Statute deal with how to proceed to obtain this Right, see paragraphs transcribed below: § 1 The interested party in obtaining the priority referred to in this article, providing proof of their age, will request the benefit of the competent judicial authority to decide the case, which will determine the measures to be complied with, recording this circumstance in a visible place in the records of the process. § 2 The priority will not cease with the death of the beneficiary, extending to the surviving spouse, partner or partner, with a stable union, over 60 (sixty) years of age. § 3 The priority extends to processes and procedures in the Public Administration, companies providing public services and financial institutions, to preferential service with the Public Defender of the Union, the States and the Federal District in relation to Legal Assistance Services. § 4 For priority care, the elderly will be guaranteed easy access to seats and boxes, identified with the destination for the elderly in a visible place and legible characters. In view of this, for the elderly to be entitled to this benefit, they only need to prove their age through documents, for example, Birth Certificate or General Registry (RG). Do people with serious illnesses have this right? The answer to that question is yes. It is known that not only senility is subject to new perspectives by Justice. The Law also guarantees these precepts to Persons with Serious Illnesses. Credits JusBrasil and Dr. Hewdy Lobo