Parliamentary secretary finds the elderly a force to be reckoned with

The elderly are slowly but surely becoming a force to be reckoned with. They are getting well organised, are involved in their own fora and are also coming out as a political force.

A good example was when bus owners recently tried to stop recognising the Kartanzjan, and the elderly reacted, forcing a withdrawal of the action against them.

The Parliamentary Secretary for the Care of the Elderly, Frans Agius, said in an interview the elderly had used their very powerful lobby of sheer force of numbers, to safeguard their interests.

He said he wanted to come up with more initiatives aimed at promoting active aging, where the elderly may continue taking care of themselves for longer.

The resource of the elderly, he said, could be used much better than at present and they could do much more.

However, the government would still continue to do its best for the dependent elderly.

Modernisation at St Vincent de Paul Home was continuing and the first phase of the current project, where two blocks are being replaced by new ones, would be inaugurated in September. The second would be constructed next year.

The new blocks - the first for men, the second for women - have three halls each and will take 108 instead of the current 96 residents. The project is costing in the region of Lm2 million.

The new wards will include features such as computer points for possible internet connection, solar panels for water heating, a partly heated bathroom floor and other comfort features. There are a maximum of four beds to a room and all areas are wheelchair accessible.

Dr Agius said the number of elderly persons was growing because of the longer life expectancy, so the country required more long term dependency accommodation.

The admission board of St Vincent de Paul, which has a turnover of 300 patients a year, has been reactivated and Dr Agius said, demand for admission was expected to increase because the elderly were living longer and people were living in a more individualistic society.

The role of St Vincent de Paul, he said, should be to take the chronic dependent type of cases. The policy should be to admit people who could not be sent to other homes.

Hotel services at the residence also had to be improved and the government was considering contracting out the laundry, catering and cleaning services.

Himself a doctor in public health who served for a time as superintendent for both St Luke's Hospital and St Vincent de Paul, Dr Agius sees a great need for change in the management structure.

The present system, he said, was not conducive to reform and because of that certain improvements could not be made.

The department for care of the elderly had to become just the regulator. The home had to be autonomous, managed by a board or management structure which was autonomous from the department.

The challenge was in fact to continue working on expansion and change the attitude and climate workers worked in at the same time.

The government, Dr Agius said, should also provide more services for elderly people who are independent, such as home based services in the community.

The government currently has six homes for the elderly apart from St Vincent de Paul, at Cospicua, Zejtun, Mtarfa, Msida, Mosta and Gzira and a home in Mellieha is planned.

Dr Agius said a decision on the financing of the Mellieha project had to be taken in the coming months. The government had to see whether to wholly finance the project and contract out the home to the private sector or whether it should also include the private sector in its financing.

The Mellieha home, which will have about 100 beds, will also include a health centre and facilities for persons with a disability.

On day care centres, Dr Agius said the centres were usually council or parish initiatives and their biggest recurrent expenditure was transport costs to take the elderly to the centres and back. Trained staff were provided by the government.

Some centres organised activities jointly with schools, introducing an element of inter-generation communication.

Dr Agius said one could identify the needs of the elderly by looking into the situation of the elderly who do not go to day centres.

Day centres could also be further developed to help the elderly remain independent for as long as possible. Dr Agius said he had requests from a number of hoteliers who wished to transform their three-star hotels into old people's homes.

Although such transformations were difficult there had been some satisfactory alterations already.

The parliamentary secretary said an inspectorate had to be set up to draw up standards on how a home for the elderly should be. Legislation on homes was actually in the pipeline.

The country would also benefit if it provided respite services for elderly foreigners, he said.