Risk of social exclusion among older people in Lithuania

Straipsniu siekiama įvertinti Lietuvos vyresnio amžiaus žmonių socialinės atskirties riziką, remiantis teorine ir politine šios sąvokos samprata, jos operacionalizavimu bei prieinamais empiriniais duomenimis. Ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas socialinės atskirties akademinio ir politinio apibrėžimo, šio reiškinio stebėsenos instrumentų – rodiklių aparato kūrimo ir vyresnio amžiaus žmonių padėties analizei. Tvirtinama, kad dėl teorinių nuostatų pliuralizmo, ribotų metodologinių išteklių bei fragmentuotų duomenų yra sudėtinga įvertinti Lietuvos vyresnio amžiaus žmonių socialinės atskirties riziką, tačiau ir esami duomenys leidžia daryti prielaidą, kad Lietuvos vyresnio amžiaus žmonių situacija daugeliu socialinės įtraukties / atskirties aspektų yra viena prasčiausių Europoje.The article aims to evaluate the risk of social exclusion among older people in Lithuania, based on the theoretical and political perception of this concept, its operationalization, and the available empirical data. Particular attention is paid to academic and political definition of the phenomenon of social exclusion, and to its monitoring instruments – to construction indicators’ portfolio and to the analysis of older people situation. The research methods applied in this study are as following: literature analysis, qualitative document analysis and quantitative data analysis. As a data sources are used respective scholary literature databases, statistical databases of Lithuanian Statistics, Eurostat, etc., as well as Lithuanian legal and related documents on inclusive policy. In the first part, based on scientific literature and national social inclusive policy documents, the general and older-people-specific social inclusion / exclusion concepts are analysed. The second part discusses how these social inclusion / exclusion concepts are applied while implementing inclusive policy in Lithuania, and particularly the aging policy. Finally, the third chapter is devoted to testing the Lithuanian older people condition in the light of social inclusion / exclusion concept, based on publicly available data. The results of the study show that because of the pluralism of theoretical attitudes, limited methodological resources and fragmented data sets it is difficult to assess the the risk of social exclusion among older people in Lithuania, also existing data suggest that the situation of Lithuanian older people in terms of social inclusion / exclusion is one of the worst in Europe. In the future it would be essential to focus on integrated efforts of academic, professional and policy makers aimed at strengthening and modernizing national social inclusive policy. More precize wording of policy object, more adequate policy measures, as well as more consistent and accurate monitoring indicators would allow answering the questions: which older people have the highest risk of social exclusion? Is this risk increasing or decreasing? And which older-peoplespecific inclusive policy measures worked most