Homes for the elderly is a topic that has interested many from all walks of life and has been the subject of several discussions organised by the two major political parties.
As we all know, people are living into an advanced age and, consequently, the geriatric generation/population is on the increase. With good food, improvement in medicine and great determination, people feel that, up to a certain extent, they seem to be overcoming age, so much so that quite a number of the so-called ‘baby-boomers’ are making the best of a good life. Thank God for that and may they continue to do so.
However, in spite of all this, there are aged persons who feel left out and excluded or forgotten because, for a number of reasons, an elderly person simply cannot live in the comfort of his/her own home or surrounded by his/her family. Quite often, persons of a certain age either seek to move into a residence for the elderly of their own accord or they are ‘placed’ there by their relatives.
It is at this stage that the problem occurs: the number of available homes and residences are limited and all of them are full. The fact that there is a list of at least 2,000 elderly waiting to be placed in homes has been known by all and sundry, including the government, for the past number of years.
Who will cater for those elderly that are no longer part of the labour force?
Although it is true that some of the persons on the list will miss their chance absolutely (through inevitable death), many others will take their place and the list is likely to grow by a good percentage. Many are those who have applied to be placed into accommodation for the elderly but, apparently, it seems that their applications are examined by the relevant board and the procedure stops there and they become just names on a list.
When the present administration took over the reins of government in March 2013, the President of Malta who, at the time, was the minister for social policy, together with the then parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca was working on a strategy that was to be adopted by the end of December 2013. In fact, in July 2013, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing had tackled the shortage issue, while avoiding exorbitant costs, and issued a call for an expression of interest for the provision of facilities for the elderly needing long-term care through a private public partnership scheme (Times of Malta, October 24, 2013).
In an article that appeared in The Sunday Times of Malta, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing, Justyne Caruana, who, in the meantime, succeeded Mercieca, listed the work being carried out by her secretariat. She also expressed the intention of increasing “the number of older workers in the labour market”.
This poses a number of questions: What about the elderly who do not form part of this group? What about the aged who have nobody to turn to? What about the number of social cases who feel lost and abandoned? What about the elderly who are left (should I write ‘dumped’?) in a hospital by relatives or who perforce have to remain there because they have no form of help if they were to return to their residences and who are an unresolved problem for the health authorities who sorely need the beds for incoming sick patients?
These are the ones who cannot join the labour market. These are the ones who, very likely, form part of the list of those 2,000 waiting for assisted living accommodation or for (perhaps more intensive) nursing care. These are the ones who make up the majority and who seem to be forgotten. These are the ones for whom the ‘more friendly working arrangements’, the ‘healthy workplaces’ and the ‘flexible retirement schemes’ mean absolutely nothing. These are the ones who are waiting for a type of accommodation where they can be assisted or nursed as they deserve, after all the promises made that seem to have been left dangling like the metaphorical unreachable sweet.
The government should stop dragging its feet and carry out its own proposals, regardless of who is at the helm of the ministry/parliamentary secretariat.
The expression of interest call made a year ago should have been converted into a working programme by now. It is the present government that had set the whole operation in motion and it is now up to it to see it through and keep its promise with the elderly who cannot join the workforce.
Joseph Grima, a historian, is a visiting lecturer and a former assistant director of education