Older persons often fall victim to fraud involving agreements on lifelong care and in such deals they often lose their property and are left without appropriate care, Vidovic said, calling for establishing a register of such agreements and providing older persons with all information on risks of entering into such agreements.
Vidovic said that older citizens or members of their families often complained to her office about the unavailability of different types of community assistance, such as household help. Even though they are guaranteed by law, such services do not exist in many communities or older persons are not entitled to them because of the amount of their household income.
"There is an awareness of state institutions about the need to make it possible for older persons to live in their own homes as long as possible, with guaranteed assistance and care. However, due to inadequate implementation, the demand for accommodation in homes for elderly and feeble persons is big and they lack sufficient accommodation capacity."
At the same time, state institutions do not support people who care about older members of their families, who are often ill, which means that they are left to the care of non-professionals who do not declare their work and remain outside any system of control, and that needs to be changed, Vidovic said.
She also noted that older persons who were still capable of work faced the risk of discrimination when being hired and that they often complained about being discriminated against regarding health care and access to goods and services.
"The status of older persons would improve to some extent if more is done to improve their access to information. Many services as well as state and public institutions are accessed only electronically, which makes older persons feel excluded so modern technologies should be combined with traditional types of communication, primarily phone and personal contact," the ombudswoman said.