By Patience Gbeze, GNA
Accra, Aug. 29, GNA – Mr Kent Jensen, Programme Consultant, Ulandssekretariatet, LO/FTF Council, Denmark, said training the youth in preventive care for the elderly in society, would improve the health status of the elderly and save money for national development.
He said ageing is inevitable and therefore more efforts needs to be put in to give them comfortable care to increase their life expectancy.
Mr Jensen, speaking at a day’s workshop to present the Elderly Care Report in Ghana, said improving elderly care is a joint vision and called on all and sundry to come on board to support a worthy cause.
The Elderly Care Project is being championed by the Health Services Workers’ Union (HSWU) to support its retirees with funding from LO/FTF Council, the Danish Trade Union Council for International Development Co-operation.
It was established under a slightly different name, in 1987 by the two largest Danish confederations, the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Danish Confederation of Salaried Employees and Civil Servants (FTF).
He said in Denmark, the elderly are very close to the heart of the people, especially the government, adding that, “the elderly played their role in the development of Denmark and it is only right they get good care when they are old”.
Mr Jensen said they have health system that gives free care to the elderly and that has increased their life expectancy for both men and women to 82 years, which hitherto was very low.
He however admitted that it was not an easy task, yet, as a country “we must set goals and endeavour to achieve it”.
The research, “Decent Work Situation in the Elderly Care Sector in Ghana”, conducted by the Labour Research and Policy Institute (LRPI) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, revealed that common diseases among the elderly are stroke, hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Dr Kwabena Otoo, Director, Labour Research and Policy Institute, who presented the report said the nature of those diseases demands people with special training in elderly care to attend to them, but the research found out that majority of the caregivers are not educated.
He said over 60 per cent are not educated; 8.6 per cent attended Primary School; 20.5 per cent have either Middle School Leaving Certificate or Junior High School Certificate; 3.4 per cent with Senior High School or Advanced Level Certificate; 5.6 per cent are Post-Secondary Leavers and only 1.5 per cent attained higher education.
He said the concept of elderly care home or institution is new in Ghana and majority of the existing institutions are privately owned. The public elderly institutions are only two and urged the government to establish more of such institutions to help the elderly.
Mr Reynolds O. Tenkorang, General Secretary of HSWU, said pension paid to retirees in Ghana is woefully inadequate and called on the government to increase the pension allowance.
He also reiterated the need to establish more public elderly institutions to alleviate the sufferings of aged in the country, adding that, “the amount of monies lost through corruption annually, if curtailed could be channelled to take care of the elderly”.
Ms Rose Kwei, Acting Head, Organising Department, TUC, called on government to implement the findings in the report.
She said some of the National Service Modules could be tailored towards caring for the elderly to restore cultural values in the youth.
Mr Zakaria Mohamed, Chairman of HSWU, said the Union is known to be the pacesetters within the TUC fraternity to have the welfare of its members at heart.
He said they have trained some volunteers in care giving to cater for the elderly in society and that research work would ginger other Unions and association within the TUC fraternity to take care of their own members when they retire.
He said it is about time to wake the TUC up to plan towards its retired members, adding that, “some of its members have taken a back seat”.
“We must dialogue with government to include the care giving modules in the Youth Employment Programme.”
He also called on other Unions to improve welfare of their members on retirement, saying, “HSWU is on course but we cannot do it alone. We need to harmonise our efforts to push government into action”.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS