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This paper adopts the Council of Europe political view of care need. This is defined in psychosocial terms and takes place within a socio-medical framework. Obviously, people may be in need of care for a number of reasons such as becoming old or with disability or a combination of both situations. Thus, regardless of these reasons, what appears is a population having difficulties to get by with basic daily activities. Therefore, the bigger the change in the social structures of the living-together, the higher the need of care. Likewise, the less developed the social services, particularly the so-called socio-medical space, the more vulnerable the people in need of care. With respect to the prospects of the 1999 Survey on Deficiencies, Disabilities and Health Conditions, we think that if an efficient National Care Need System is not developed the biological success attained in the past century will be followed by a resounding social failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most hidden forms of violence is the violence against older persons -a highly vulnerable population. It is a phenomenon that has long been silenced, misunderstood and hardly detected. Although professionals know this problem, great difficulties exist to address it. Actually, not much attention has been paid to this problem. Sometimes it is easier to deny events like these than to face them, even if they may become extremely shocking. Experts foretell an increasing number of ill-treatment events inflicted to aged persons owing to the increasing ageing of the population, life expectancy, physical and psychological dependence and the acknowledgement of old people's rights. Social and cultural changes, along with negative stereotypes about ageing, favour age discrimination. The aforementioned factors are an indication that important social changes are taking place that need to be addressed quickly and creatively. As a result, current standards and conditions concerning family care and patterns of family duties are questioned. Therefore, older persons care is not clearly specified in social regulations, as is the case with children. This paper attempts to draw the attention of practitioners, especially psychologists, pedagogues, social workers, etc. about the importance of their role and the need that they get involved in prevention, detection, diagnosing and intervention to tackle this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]