‘The elderly: forgotten promises’

Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice.

Guyana’s 2012 National Report on Aging (NRA) promised to ‘spare no efforts to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms of all older persons, work towards the eradication of all forms of discrimination and violence and create safety nets for older persons to exercise their rights’. Decades of political confusion, economic decline, high levels of poverty and unemployment, low wages and even lower pensions have left many elderly persons living in dire poverty. The end of 2016 had been pegged by the previous PPP/C government as the time by which all of the promises made in the NRA would have been fulfilled. Postponing comments for next week, here are 16 policy areas with completion time-lines that stakeholders thought necessary if the above commitments were to be fulfilled.

To promote the human rights of older persons, the government will improve access to justice for all older persons and develop specific national laws that broaden measures to protect the physical and mental integrity of older persons. Legislation must include measures to safeguard property and help older persons remain in their own homes during old age. TC (to be completed_: November 2016.
Increase the protection of the rights of older persons by reviewing and enhancing legislation and by formulating and enacting a comprehensive national bill of rights for older persons. TC: November 2016.
Enhance the participation of older persons as a specific interest group in development planning. TC: April 2012.
Enacting and enforcing legal requirements for all public buildings to address the accessibility needs of all older persons. TC: 2013.
Ensure adequate care and treatment of older persons in public and private long–stay institutions by development of minimum standards for long-stay institutional care of the ageing. This may include the compilation of a national handbook of SOP for acceptance of residents to facilities and dealing with conflict resolution and elder abuse. TC: January 2013.
Improve the monitoring framework vis-à-vis minimum standards in long-stay institutions. TC: January, 2013.
Promote an adequate standard of living by enhancing favourable environments and establishing a new state of the art seniors’ home that also provides day services for seniors. TC: August, 2016.
Provide opportunities for lifelong learning through intergenerational exchange and the development of structured social programmes and activities for government-run senior facilities. TC: November 2012.
During Month of the Elderly, promote dependency prevention by undertaking campaigns to promote healthy ageing awareness and early screening programmes that address the physical and mental needs of the older persons beyond diabetes and hypertension, and focus as well on chronic illnesses and degenerative diseases that affect the ageing population. TC: every October to 2016.
To realize the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health for 80 percent of older persons, advance an awareness programme about sexual and reproductive health for men and women 55+ including living with HIV in their senior years. TC: 2012-16.
Reduce the incidence of elder neglect and provide goods and services to senior citizens that enhance their longevity by the expansion of integrated socio-health programmes sensitive to the culture of elderly persons living alone and/or who are shut-ins, including hot meals and trained caregivers who provide home-based care and do other personal chores. TC: February, 2013.
Develop programme training and certify all staff who administer geriatric services based on an inter-disciplinary assessment of long-stay institutions. TC: January 2014.
Protect the family by encouraging access to high quality care services and coordinating a certification programme for caregivers (both professionals and family members) in the best care of the elderly. Training workshops could be customized to help caregivers and families understand how to cope with family members who suffer from Alzheimer’s, dementia, arthritis, cancer, osteoporosis, etc. TC: December. 2013.
Promote decent and adequate work in old age by expanding and mainstreaming retirement planning in all public institutions. Programmes should address monetary and social retirement planning. Evidence–based data needed to plan programmes. TC: To be determined.
Development of a national inter-sectoral plan which should streamline all the rights of the elderly within all related ministries. TC: December 2012.
Establishment of an intersectional committee on the ageing to provide oversight of the implementation of the key priorities listed above. TC: December 2012.

As I indicated when I first considered this issue (The elderly: broken promises. SN: 21/12/2016), fleeting attention to current affairs would be sufficient for one to recognise that a decade since the NRA little impact has been made on its agenda. The elderly is one group in Guyana for which a one-off cash grant, much less one of just $28,000, is totally inappropriate, and now that the resources are available the government should consult with stakeholders and immediately begin providing the environment of certainty that human freedom and security requires by fulfilling its commitment to establish for them an adequate economic and social safety net.