VIOLENCE AND ABUSE AGAINST ELDERLY: THE OTHER FACE OF AGING

To discuss the issue of violence and abuse suffered by the elderly in Brazil and the role of Open Universities of the Third Age as a center for reflection and support for issues related to the human aging process. Methodology: literature with retrospective, descriptive and documentary research. Results: With the increase in the elderly population in Brazil arise various problems that require effective solutions in order to ensure access to this age group a better quality of life with dignity, respect, guaranteeing them even a healthier life, depriving them of any kind of violence, whether physical, moral, psychological and emotional elderly people have been victims of all kinds of violence, ranging from insults and beatings by their own families and caregivers, to the abuse suffered in public transport and public and private institutions serving this population. Seconds Secretariat data the Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic the majority of violence against the elderly in Brazil, ranging from financial abuse and neglect to bad physical and psychological treatment, and is committed by family members of the elderly themselves. On the other hand, the Elderly Statute provides that in Brazil, no elderly will be object of any kind of negligence, discrimination, violence, cruelty or oppression. Thus, any kind of discrimination, physical or moral violence, act of cruelty and oppression, abuse should be referred to legal punishments established in current criminal law. Conclusion: education as a social practice, has an important role in the debate the issue of violence and abuse suffered by older people, as this has a character of transformation, beyond the mere idea of information transmission, and as such has the power to arouse the attention of society to the problems faced by the elderly, showing the need to ensure conditions conducive to aging with dignity, where the elderly as part of participation and social transformation agent. Therefore, should be included in the list of pedagogical and curricular practices of Open Universities of the Third Age, not just the debate on the subject, but, above all, that they join the other institutions in order to propose coping strategies to this sad reality. Only with a participative society can achieve a higher level of citizenship and considerably reduce social inequalities, giving our elderly a better quality of life, free from any kind of violence.