A report last week that Guyana was moving to draft a strategic plan for elderly care was welcome news, especially the knowledge that said plan would ensure that seniors’ rights are respected and upheld. This information emanated from a workshop hosted by the Ministry of Public Health in association with the Ministry of Social Protection and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), where it was also revealed that the Ministry of Social Protection was in the process of establishing a visiting committee, which would ensure that elderly residential facilities are in compliance with the minimum standards set for operation of such facilities.
The minimum standards referred to were developed last year, those at the workshop were advised. Whether they were adopted by the elder care homes will not be known until the visiting committee, which is expected to have a nutritionist, a gerontologist, engineering managerial staff from the Ministry of Social Protection and a member of the National Commission on the Elderly, is set up and begins working. It is hoped that this happens soon and that the committee will take its task seriously and not operate in default the way the visiting committee for orphanages and children’s homes did under the former ministry of human services and social security.
One cannot help but recall the years of neglect visited on four seniors, who eked out a living at the Chase’s Indigent Home in Robb Street for over a decade. The home, a private facility, had become defunct following the death of its owner, and there was some understanding that the women there would be allowed to remain. But because there was no maintenance and no protection, the building began to practically fall down around the women, who in their advanced years were forced to fetch water and contend with drug addicts using the yard as a toilet and breaking in among other hardships. It was not until last year that the last two residents, aged 71 and 80 years old, were finally able to leave.
According to information from the Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of Guyana’s older population, persons 60 years or 65 years or older had been steadily increasing. In 1970, the number of persons aged 60 years or older was 37,913; those aged 65 years and over amounted to 25,104. By 2002, those numbers had increased to 46,839 and 31,716 respectively. The figures represented 5.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent of the total population in 1970 and 6.2 per cent and 4.2 per cent in 2002. However, according to the final figures for the 2012 population census, which were published in May last year, Guyana’s total over-60 population had declined to 59,832 of which 32,013 were women and 27,819 were men. Of course, consideration must be given to the fact that the general population had declined as well to 746,955 and that the Bureau of Statistics had reported that 4,766 households were not enumerated for various reasons.
Nevertheless, the fact is the elderly population the world over is growing, life expectancy rates have risen as people are living longer. Unfortunately, this longevity brings with it, in some cases, infirm bodies and minds, which means that caring for the elderly must have structure and should be budgeted for. It would be difficult, if not impossible to implement a strategic plan for which there is no specific funding.
The previous government had been roundly accused of not doing much for the elderly, old age pensions and utility payment rebates aside. This had prompted it to set up a National Commission on the Elderly in 2012, to replace the defunct one that had disappeared in 1999. It was not apparent that the 2012 Commission fared much better than its predecessor in terms of carrying out its mandate. Observances during month of the elderly in October and a barrage of charity Christmas parties in December do not by any means constitute care for the elderly.
Such care should include national awareness of age-related illness such as Alzheimer’s and dementia so as to reduce the number of seniors who go missing and sometimes die simply because their minds wander. It must be extended to adequate medical care and medicines available at all public hospitals, clinics and health centres for seniors with chronic non-communicable diseases. Visiting committees looking into minimum standards of care for the elderly should not just be restricted to seniors’ homes, as abuse and neglect of the elderly also occur among those who live with relatives. In addition, the processes by which welfare officers can remove children who are being abused by family members and have the family members charged and placed before the court, should be extended to seniors. If necessary, this should be legislated.
There is much more that can and should be done for seniors, but at this point just ensuring that the processes identified at last week’s workshop are executed correctly would be a huge improvement on the status quo.
