{"id":15777,"date":"2026-05-12T03:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/greeces-elderly-being-left-behind-by-a-failing-system\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T03:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:40:24","slug":"greeces-elderly-being-left-behind-by-a-failing-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/greeces-elderly-being-left-behind-by-a-failing-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece\u2019s elderly being left behind by a failing system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-1303305\">\n    <!-- .entry-header --><\/p>\n<div class=\"first-img article_thumbnail_wrapper\" itemscope=\"\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n                                                                    <picture><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/elderly_care_home_nursing_shutterstock-320x200.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/elderly_care_home_nursing_shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"Greece\u2019s elderly being left behind by a failing system\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/elderly_care_home_nursing_shutterstock-960x600.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n                        <\/source><\/picture>\n<p>[Shutterstock]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Illegal, unlicensed eldercare facilities operating in apartments and hotels across Greece are exposing a deepening crisis in long-term care for the elderly, authorities say.<\/p>\n<p>The latest case \u2013 a foul-smelling Athens apartment where malnourished elderly residents showed visible signs of fear and neglect \u2013 followed a similar raid days earlier in Rethymno, Crete. Experts warn these cases represent only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<p>Greece has roughly 16,500 eldercare beds for a population in which 23% are over 65 \u2013 the second-lowest share in the EU. Licensed facilities charge \u20ac1,000-2,000 monthly, pushing families toward cheaper illegal alternatives. Public facilities are virtually nonexistent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese phenomena are the result of an absent long-term care system,\u201d said Maria Karagiannidou, a researcher at the London School of Economics\u2019 Care Policy and Evaluation Center, \u201cand will grow if nothing changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enforcement is woefully undermanned. The Attica Regional Authority, for example, has just 61 social inspectors who oversee 1,544 facilities of all kinds.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .entry-content --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n        var NXFBPixelFunc = function () {\n            document.removeEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n            setTimeout(function () {\n                !function (f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                    if (f.fbq) return;\n                    n = f.fbq = function () {\n                        n.callMethod ?\n                            n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n                    };\n                    if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n                    n.push = n;\n                    n.loaded = !0;\n                    n.version = '2.0';\n                    n.queue = [];\n                    t = b.createElement(e);\n                    t.async = !0;\n                    t.src = v;\n                    s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n                }(window, document, 'script',\n                    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n                fbq('init', '109138906120213');\n                fbq('track', 'PageView');\n            }, 0)\n        };\n        document.addEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/in-depth\/society-in-depth\/1303305\/greeces-elderly-being-left-behind-by-a-failing-system\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Shutterstock] Illegal, unlicensed eldercare facilities operating in apartments and hotels across Greece are exposing a deepening crisis in long-term care for the elderly, authorities say. The latest case \u2013 a foul-smelling Athens apartment where malnourished elderly residents showed visible signs of fear and neglect \u2013 followed a similar raid days earlier in Rethymno, Crete. Experts &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Greece\u2019s elderly being left behind by a failing system\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/greeces-elderly-being-left-behind-by-a-failing-system\/#more-15777\" aria-label=\"Read more about Greece\u2019s elderly being left behind by a failing system\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/elderly_care_home_nursing_shutterstock-960x600.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}