Hans Dubois

La salud mental en Europa se encuentra en una encrucijada crítica. Aunque algunos indicadores han mejorado desde la pandemia, un nuevo informe de Eurofound revela tendencias preocupantes, incluida una parada alarmante de la disminución de las tasas de suicidio durante décadas. En este episodio de Eurofound Talks, Mary McCaughey habla con el director de investigación Hans Dubois sobre este complejo tema, destacando que la mala salud mental está afectando de manera desproporcionada a los grupos vulnerables.

En sus directrices políticas para la Comisión Europea entrante, publicadas en julio, la presidenta que regresa, Ursula von der Leyen, esbozó propuestas ambiciosas para el próximo mandato europeo de cinco años. Entre ellos se incluye el nombramiento del primer miembro de la comisión cuyas responsabilidades incluirían la vivienda, así como la primera Plan.In europea de viviendas asequibles. Mary McCaughey habla con Hans Dubois, director de investigación de Eurofound, sobre los últimos avances en materia de vivienda y política de vivienda en Europa. Este, el segundo episodio de la serie que se centra específicamente en la vivienda, analiza el papel de la Comisión entrante, lo que la investigación de Eurofound puede aportar y las diferentes herramientas políticas necesarias.

In this episode Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Senior Research Manager Hans Dubois on the issues that feed into housing insecurity in Europe, and the actions that need to be taken to address them. Together, they analyse findings from Eurofound’s recent Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe report, which presents data from Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents on various indicators of housing security and living conditions.

This episode of Eurofound Talks looks at care: care for children, care for older people, care for those who are frail or with disabilities, access to care, the quality of care, and the working conditions of care workers. Mary McCaughey speaks with Senior Research Manager Hans Dubois about how care policy has received more attention post-pandemic in the context of the European Commission’s new European Care Strategy on quality, affordable and accessible care services across the EU, as well as the European Parliament’s resolution Towards a common European action on care. They also discuss the impact of care on related areas such as gender equality, Europe's long-term economic development, and ensuring greater social cohesion.

The European Pillar of Social Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular home-care and community-based services’. Taking a step to make this principle a reality, the European Commission is currently preparing a European Care Strategy, expected in September 2022. Good access to care is crucial for the quality of life of people with care needs as well as the well-being of informal carers who care for family or friends. An ageing population translates into intensifying demand for long-term care (LTC). Meeting this demand calls for a future-oriented strategy, one that should identify current trends and seek to improve them. Here we present four policy options that such a strategy should include.

An ageing Europe and rising public expenditure on long-term care have signalled for some time that the fundamentals of care provision need to be addressed. However, the shocking death toll in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many long-term care services were ill-equipped to protect their vulnerable users have lately focused the public mind on the issue. Most people in the EU will need such care for themselves or someone close to them at some stage in their lives. Demand is already escalating, as the rise in the long-term care workforce – by a third in just a decade – testifies. Calls for a European care strategy rightly insist that care users be listened to, but here we highlight others in the system whose needs deserve attention too.