Maravi

Let's value the health of our older people

Let's value the health of our older people
By The Post
Sat 07 Apr. 2012, 13:30 CAT

TODAY is World Health Day and it is being commemorated under the theme ‘Ageing and Health'. This is a befitting theme, given the state of old people in the world, especially in our poor world. While young people have more and special access to health services, old people are often left to die without the necessary healthcare.

We have programmes for the under-five, who need much attention, who are much more open to all sorts of health problems or complications. But we don't have such programmes for older people, who are equally more open to all sorts of health problems and complications. It is clear that we value the lives of young people more than we do for the lives of old people. This may be understandable when one looks at the future and the position of young people in it.

It is said that the future belongs to all of us but much more so to young people. But there is no future without a past, without the present. Today was yesterday's future. Today's future has to be constructed on the threshold of what we do today.

The standards, values and principles we set today will be the ones on which the future will be built. We all know, or we must all know if we didn't know, that a society that doesn't value its older people denies its roots and endangers its future.

The present we enjoy today is something that has been built for us, that has been given to us by these old people whom we are today neglecting, marginalising and cutting off from our health services.

More humane societies, more just nations, more fair people attach a great deal of value to and care for old people. They don't see old people as useless beings not worth of their resources, especially resources spent on providing efficient, effective and orderly healthcare.

We sometimes wonder what type of Christian nation we are building in this country that doesn't care for its older people. There is no special treatment for older people in terms of health services or indeed any other services required in an organised society.

We have many old people who have no access to proper nutrition. We have many old people who have to walk long distances to fetch water and firewood. And with the advent of HIV and AIDS, we have many old people who are looking after many orphaned grandchildren and sometimes even great grandchildren without any support from society.

These are old people who have been retired and are unemployable, meaning they are living without any meaningful source of income. But at the same time, they are carrying such a heavy burden on their shoulders without any meaningful help from society. And some of these duties that they have to undertake are having a serious toll on their health.

They are forced at very advanced ages to do the work or carry out the duties of very young people, who have better access to health facilities. By health facilities, we do not only mean access to a doctor or medical care. We also include access to other social amenities that help keep their bodies fit and healthy.

Young people have more access to financial resources that enable them to eat more and better food, purchase the necessities of hygiene. They also have better access to modern sanitation facilities that make their environments much cleaner and their lives much healthier.

Older people do not have much access to some of these things and are, therefore, very vulnerable to disease. For some old people, even a bar of soap is something that is not easy to acquire. Yet, to live a healthy life, one needs to have uninterrupted access to soap for washing their hands after using the toilet and for washing their bodies to remove not only dirt but also germs that may grow on the skin and open them to ill health.

They also need soap to wash their clothes. All these things need a lot of money which old people do not have access to. We generally value and respect older people we love or know well. We sometimes seem to forget that all these old people at one time or another were of service to the entire broader community in which they lived.

We also seem to forget that the good lives we lead today, including the national life we are enjoying today, are all a product of their selfless lives and efforts. The things which we are excluding them from today are a product of their struggles.

Without their efforts, we wouldn't have a country that today can produce healthy young people who are able to even win the African soccer championships. Let's increase the respect and care for our old people.

We know that people often equate women's worth with beauty, youth and the ability to have children. The role older women play in our families and communities, caring for their partners, parents, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is often overlooked.

Our old women often tend to be the family caregivers. Many take care of more than one generation. These women are often themselves at advanced ages. We should not ignore this great contribution our old women are making to the general wellbeing of the nation.

Treatable conditions and illnesses in older people are often overlooked or dismissed as being a normal part of ageing. This is wrong. This is unacceptable, morally or otherwise.

Age does not necessarily cause pain, and only extreme old age can be said to be associated with limitation of bodily function. The right to the best possible healthcare does not, and should not, diminish as we age: it is mainly society that sets age limits for access to complex treatments or proper rehabilitation and secondary prevention of disease and disability.

It is not age that limits the health and participation of older citizens. Rather, it is individual and societal misconceptions, discrimination and abuse that prevent active and dignified ageing.

Let's learn to love, respect and care for our old people. If we live longer, with the preferential healthcare we are receiving or we are able to give ourselves, we will also one day be old and be subjected to this type of treatment, discrimination and marginalisation.

Let's treat our old people the way we would like to be treated when we ourselves become old.

Labels: HEALTHCARE, UN

posted by MrK @ 7:14 PM