In the midst of the intense pace of life attributed to modernity, a social phenomenon is expanding more and more: the emotional abandonment of older adults.
According to the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), 16 percent of older adults – nationwide – suffer from abandonment and mistreatment.
Twenty percent of this group lives in absolute loneliness, forgotten by society and by their own families.
Feeling abandoned, the older adult presents psychological disorders and multiple pathologies that add to those associated with aging.
In Yucatán there are no precise statistics on this growing problem, but we do know of one of its manifestations in the legal sphere: cases in which a couple’s conflicts affect older adults, who stop seeing their grandchildren, with the profound effect this has on them.
For many grandparents, this separation represents a hard blow, since the grandchildren become “emotional nourishment”.
Rubén Osorio Paredes, a specialist in Family Law, explains that grandparents have the right to cohabitation with their grandchildren, whether their parents are divorced or not, and in order to access this right they can file a voluntary jurisdiction proceeding before a judge.
“According to the Family Code, in cases of separation or divorce, the cohabitation between the minor and the relatives of the non-custodial parent, in this case the grandparents, can no longer be prevented without a justified cause”, he emphasizes.
Recent studies show that grandchildren living with their grandparents allows for their healthy development.
Acute social problem
Although little is said about it, the emotional neglect of the elderly is the expression of a social problem that has become more evident in recent years, with several ramifications.
According to specialists, the family plays a decisive role in this framework, especially the grandchildren, who in many cases become “emotional food” for the grandparents and, paradoxically, become the weakest link when contact is broken when friction arises in a family relationship.
In Yucatan, the Family Code provides measures to guarantee the cohabitation of grandparents and grandchildren in the event of legal conflicts involving the grandparents’ parents. The grandparents have the right to such cohabitation and can claim it through voluntary jurisdiction proceedings before a judge.
Rubén Osorio Paredes, specialist in Family Law, explains that the accompaniment of the grandparents is also an important part of the children’s upbringing.
Abandonment and abuse
To illustrate the seriousness of emotional abandonment, he cites data from the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities of the UNAM, which indicates that 16 percent of older adults suffer from abandonment and mistreatment.
According to these same statistics, he adds, 20 percent of this population group lives in loneliness, not only forgotten by society but also by their own families.
“The isolation of older adults is increasingly evident in a society immersed in growing competitiveness and characterized by processes of dehumanization in many ways,” he adds.
The professional, author of the column “Derecho para todos” published by this newspaper, points out that, according to specialists, when feeling abandoned by their families, older adults present psychological disorders that affect their emotions and generate feelings of frustration, abandonment and loneliness.
In this situation, he adds, there are multiple pathologies such as psychosis, acute neurosis and dementias associated with aging and abandonment.
The role of grandchildren
In this part, he addresses the affective aspect. Studies have shown, he affirms, that the coexistence of grandchildren with their grandparents allows their healthy development, since it leads to the knowledge and direct contact that the minors have with their ascendants and other relatives in order to achieve their full integration into the family nucleus and to obtain full identity in the social group to which they belong.
By virtue of this, he emphasizes, the normal development of a minor takes place in his or her environment. Their harmony with the family -both maternal and paternal- is of vital importance for a healthy emotional growth, which is achieved when cohabitation with both parents and their respective grandparents is guaranteed, as long as this cohabitation does not endanger their own integrity.
The Doctor in Law emphasizes that the Family Code for the State of Yucatan seeks the protection of the primary interest of children and adolescents.
One of the objectives, he continues, is precisely a good cohabitation and development of the children with their parents and their ascendants (grandparents), in the event that the parents have separated or are divorced or in the process of divorce, strengthening the bonds of affection when either parent does not live in the same domicile as that of their descendants.
What does the law say?
It goes on to quote Article 357 of the Family Code: “The cohabitation of minors reaches the parents and ascendants in the straight ascending line in the first degree, if applicable.”
And explains:
-According to the Family Code, in cases of separation or divorce, the cohabitation between the minor and the relatives of the non-custodial parent, in this case the grandparents, can no longer be prevented without just cause. In case of non-compliance, the authority will have the means it deems necessary to decree the cohabitation in the manner and form that benefits the minors. And in case of partial or total non-compliance, the authority may decree the sanction measures provided by law, from injunction and fine to the use of public force to allow the father or mother, as the case may be, to allow the cohabitation.
-It can also happen that, without just cause, there are parents who, even without getting divorced, prevent the children from living together with their maternal or paternal grandparents. In these cases, the grandparents can file a proceeding before the family judge so that the authority can establish a cohabitation regime that allows them to see their grandchildren.
-The right of visitation and cohabitation of the minors with the grandparents must be catalogued as a fundamental right of the minor. Such cohabitation shall only be prevented when it is fully demonstrated that it is detrimental to the physical, psychological or emotional integrity of the minor.
-For the sake of that supreme right that children have to be loved and respected, without any condition whatsoever, both parents have by law the obligation to allow and promote the right of visitation and cohabitation of their children with their respective grandparents in an atmosphere of understanding and respect for the minors, ensuring at all times their full physical and mental development.
-The regime of cohabitation, more than a right of the relatives, is a privilege of the children that must be protected.
The head of the law firm Rubén Osorio y Asociados explains that some time ago it was interpreted that the legal scope of cohabitation was with the parents. In recent years the disposition was reinterpreted and for that reason it is extended to the grandparents.
Affective need
Apart from the legal aspects of the issue, the interviewee notes the importance of the emotional factor, since grandparents also have spiritual and affective needs and many of them die in the midst of sadness because they stopped seeing their grandchildren due to problems with the grandchildren’s parents.
“There are many children who are orphaned by grandparents, literally,” she continues. “And many grandparents die alone when they stop seeing their grandchildren. The issue of alimony is important for the elderly, but we must not fail to see that the ’emotional alimony’, so to speak, is just as important. They are also nourished by affection.
Finally, he stresses the convenience of spreading the word that grandparents have the right to cohabitation with their grandchildren, whether their parents are divorced or not, and they can resort to the law to achieve it. If they cannot afford a private attorney, they have the option of going to the Institute of Public Defense of the State of Yucatan.
Abandonment
The local Family Code provides for situations regarding cohabitation with minors.
No impediment
In cases of separation or divorce of a couple, the cohabitation between the children and the relatives of the non-custodial parent, in this case the grandparents, cannot be impeded without just cause, says Dr. Rubén Osorio.
Obligated by law
Both parents have, by law, the obligation to allow and encourage the right of visitation and coexistence of their children with their respective grandparents in an atmosphere of understanding and respect for the children.
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