Human rights are objective minimum standards required for all individuals to live with dignity. Despite the protection offered by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), older people continue to suffer from negative stereotypes that lead to discrimination, isolation, exclusion, even abuse. A number of studies and reports (e.g. European Network of National Human Rights Institutions) identify lack of awareness among older people of their rights and a lack of understanding of the practical application of human rights among public bodies as factors in preventing and responding to breaches of human rights. The title of this project, Two Moons comes from the Indian proverb: “Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins”, represents the concept of 'voice', in that it is only through raising the voice of those affected that understanding emerges. Two Moons aims to develop an education programme to enhance older people's knowledge of their human rights and make human rights relevant to daily life and in this way empower older people to safe-guard their well-being. The education programme will shine a light on the challenges older people' face in protecting their rights, making visible to policy makers, health and social care professionals, legal professions, human rights and advocacy groups where and how public bodies are failing in their obligation to protect older people's rights. Two Moons uses an innovative methodology for knowledge transfer. Using older people's direct experiences of infringement of their rights, a documentary theatre script is developed. The scripted monologues use the words of the older people to tell their lived experiences translated into a dramatic form. This format has the ability to engage and increase capacity of people to understand and cope with a life issue, such as discrimination, ageism which breach human rights. The documentary theatre is followed by a talkback. A talkback is a period after the performance where audience members talk to the performers and each other about what they saw enhancing critical thinking and interpersonal learning. The objectives are: - to develop with older people an education resource that reflects their reality - to empower older people to protect themselves by knowing about their rights - to design the resource for use not only by older people but also policy makers, health and social care professionals, service providers, younger people - to promote and enhance a rights based approach to adult safeguarding The transnational element of the project is important as countries involved Italy, Ireland, Romania and Finland represent different social models, yet share the common need to educate older people about their human rights to empower them to assert their rights to prevent abuse. Outputs from Two Moons include: a) Booklet, 'My Human Rights, My Well-Being', containing stories from older people of human rights infringements they have suffered b) Documentary Theatre script, 'Our Stories: Human Rights and Older People in Europe", recounting 6 stories that highlight human rights infringements. Each of the 6 monologue tells a story using the older person's words. c) Facilitator's Guide to Two Moons Documentary Theatre and Talkback: older people have the opportunity to train as facilitators to deliver the Two Moon education programme d) 'Listen to my Story', an audio recording of the monologues adapted for radio broadcast, extends the reach of the education programme to more isolated older people. Two Moons has the potential to bring about fundamental change in a number of ways: (1) Knowledge and skills Older people involved in the development of the education programme and participating in the programme will acquire new knowledge on human rights applicable to their daily lives and the mechanisms they can use to vindicate those rights. New creative skills will also be acquired. Knowledge drives change so the expected impact will be the confidence to claim rights, for example an older person in hospital will know that on discharge they cannot 'be sent' to a nursing home without their consent. (2) Behaviour and attitudes - professionals such as health and social care workers and and social care students will see and hear real experiences of how older people's rights are infringed with an expected impact of reduction in paternalistic attitudes and behaviour, and instead, an acknowledgment of older person's autonomy and their right to make decisions, e.g. about support service (3) Systems - policy-makers will witness situations where older people's rights are not protected and act to meet their obligation to protect these rights. (4) Ways of Thinking - having attended the performance and participated in the talkback, stakeholders will leave thinking about older people as rights holders, making them more likely to question ageist policies and practices.
Context/ background Human rights are objective minimum standards required for all individuals to live with dignity. Despite the protection offered by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), older people continue to suffer from negative stereotypes that lead to discrimination, isolation, exclusion, even abuse. Lack of awareness among older people of their rights and a lack of understanding of the practical application of human rights among public bodies are factors in preventing and responding to breaches of human rights. Two Moons aims to develop an education programme to enhance older people's knowledge of their human rights and make human rights relevant to daily life and making visible to wider society where and how public bodies are failing in their obligation to protect older people's rights. It uses an innovative methodology for knowledge transfer. The title Two Moons comes from the Indian proverb: “Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins”, representing the concept of 'voice', in that it is only through raising the voice of those affected that understanding emerges. Hence the resources developed use stories in the words of the older person to illustrate infringement of their rights. The objectives are: - to develop with older people an education resource that reflects their reality - to empower older people to assert and claim their rights through knowledge of complaints procedures. - to design the resource for use not only by older people but also policy makers, health and social care professionals, service providers - to promote and enhance a rights based approach to service delivery and adult safeguarding Overall approximately 450 people participated directly in Two Moons. Older people attended seminars/ focus groups organised to share information on human rights and collect experiences, provided the stories, reviewed the IO1 booklet, did readings and reviewed the monologues for the IO2 script, participated in the facilitator's workshop, performed the documentary theatre, attended pilot performance event and seminars to hear and feedback on IO4 audios. Policy makers, health, social care and legal professionals, advocacy organisations and educators participated in reviewing monologues, the facilitator's workshop on hosting a performance and talkback, reviewing and feeding back on all of the outputs. Activities undertaken for: - IO1 Booklet included researching and learning about human rights conventions, collecting the experiences of older people where their human rights were not respected, using these experiences in a booklet to illustrate breaches to ECHR and UNCRPD, outlining possible actions such as complaints procedures that older people can take to claim their rights. - IO2 script included in depth interviews with older people, molding these interviews into 10 minute monologues, merging monologues together to form a play. - IO3 guide included researching on elements of production, performance and talkback, creating modules for the facilitator's workshop on hosting the play and talkback , delivering the training, supporting performance of play, learning on webinar platforms and delivering workshops and events virtually - IO4 included research on community radio stations, preparation of monologues for broadcast, recording the monologues, developing lesson plans for the Training workbook to accompany the audios to facilitate group learning using IO4. These activities contributed to the development of the following outputs: a) Booklet, 'My Human Rights, My Well-Being', accounts of situations where the older person's human rights were not respected. . b) Documentary Theatre script, 'Our Stories: Human Rights and Older People in Europe", recounting 6 stories that highlight human rights infringements. c) Facilitator's Guide to Two Moons Documentary Theatre and Talkback: d) 'Listen to my Story', an audio recording of the monologues adapted for radio broadcast; an accompanying workbook to be used with audios for education purposes Results and impact (1) Knowledge and skills Increased awareness and new knowledge on human rights and actions to take to claim rights among older people. Increased awareness and new knowledge among public sector workers on their obligation under Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to protect rights of older service users (2) Behaviour and attitudes - recognition among public sector workers that current process for delivering and accessing services does not always respect older service users rights to self-determination, to support and protection and be treated equally (3) Systems - action by advocacy organizations and policy-makers to address discrimination within the system in the criteria used to qualify for services working to adapt to reflect older people as rights holders.