in longterm care institutions or other services that provide housing or treatment for older persons it is relatively common to find deplorable living conditions or overcrowding or treatment that may harm physical or mental health or infringe other basic human rights and fundamental freedoms with frequently irrevocable consequences vasquez all residents of institutions have rights and liberties protected in international covenants and national laws regardless of whether they suffer physical or mental disabilities recent research carried out by the interamerican development bank idb and the pan american health organization paho on the social exclusion of institutionalized older persons with physical and mental disabilities in three southern cone countries argentina chile and uruguay shows a heterogeneous situation in terms of these services argentina has the highest proportion of admittances decided by someone other than the older person him or herself while chile has the highest percentage of older persons admitted because they have nowhere to live institutionalized older persons in uruguay have a lower level of functional and mental capacities while in argentina of residents display no cognitive or physiological degeneration