Pass aged bill to law - UG lecturer urges parliament
The Director of the Center for Ageing Studies, College of Humanities at University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Mavis Dako-Gyeke, has called on parliament to urgently pass the Aged Bill into law to ensure that the needs of older persons in the society were adequately catered for.
Madam Dako-Gyeke indicated that most issues or challenges of older persons in our societies were not prioritised leaving them vulnerable at the hands of sickness or loneliness.
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Hence she stated that it had become necessary to adopt solutions that would enhance the wellbeing of older persons while she called for the younger generation to actively take up the responsibility of catering for older persons.
“So when we talk about ageing it is not just about adding on years, but it is making sure that there is quality and so it is important that we ensure that once we have the capacity now we pass the bill to ensure that quality of life and wellbeing is rendered to older persons as it is due them”, she stressed.
Madam Dako-Gyeke made this call when the center with other stakeholders commemorated International Day of Older Persons in Accra on October 1, 2022.
Celebration
As marked by the United Nations annually every October first, the celebration was aimed at honoring the contributions of the older population in the society and actively finding solutions to the problems they faced.
This year’s celebration was under the theme “Resilience of older Persons in a changing World”.
The event was marked with free health screening, health talks, counseling, dance and fitness session and an essay competition facilitated by the Los Abuelos foundation.
Training
The Director of the Family Health Division at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Kofi Issah also indicated to ensure that the needs of older persons are met, the service had started training specialised health workers who were going to be responsible for taking care of older persons in most of the hospitals across the country.
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This he said was to ensure that older persons in the society were adequately taken care of with the outmost dignity at the hospitals.
Dr Issah added that the service was dedicated to bringing up innovative services to improve on the health delivery of older persons in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Los Abuelos, whose organization was aimed at promoting the wellbeing and rights of older Persons through advocacy, strategic collaborations, humanitarian interventions, outreach and community services, Eunice Abban Afari, called on the younger generation to appreciate the significant contribution of older persons to society and national development.
“So the overarching goal is to re-echo our socio-cultural values in showing respect, love and appreciation to older persons and also to advocate against all forms of abuse and maltreatment against older persons”, she said.