Michael Olugbode in Abuja
The federal government has admitted that despite the numbers of Nigerians with age 60 years and above standing at 14.8 million, there is increasing gaps in the provision of health and social needs of older persons, both at the national and subnational levels.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day national stakeholders workshop on integrated care of older persons with theme: “Realigning and Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Delivery of Integrated Care for Older Persons,” the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hadiza Sadiya Umar-Farouq, said: “There are currently over 14.8 million Nigerians, who are 60 years and above according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NLSS 2018-2019 NBS), with the rapidly increasing proportion and absolute numbers of older persons in Nigeria, despite the country’s youthful population, there are increasing gaps in the provision. Of health and social needs of older persons, both at the national and subnational levels.”
The minister said the signing of the National Senior Citizens Bill into law , the approval of the National Policy on Ageing and the inauguration of the board of the National Senior Citizens Centre by the president laid the legal and institutional frameworks to improve the effective delivery of health and social care for older people.
Umar-Farouq, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Humanitarian Affairs, Alhaji Musa Bungudu, said with the objective of the two-day national workshop to assess the status of inclusion of older persons in primary care services and to consider and strategize ways of realigning and strengthening institutional capacities to deliver integrated care for older persons, she said she was optimistic that the outcome document from what promises to be very stimulating technical deliberations, will usher a new dawn in accessible, appropriate primary health care for older persons.
The National Senior Citizens Centre, speaking on the workshop which it organised with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the World Health Organisation (WHO), lamented the poor understanding of ageing issues among relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies of government.
The Director General of the Centre, Dr. Emem Omokaro, also lamented that older persons themselves, their family members and their communities lack adequate knowledge of ageing issues.
She said this has further compounded the challenges facing senior citizens in the country.
Omokaro, which identified some of these challenges to include, poverty, poor health, lack of access to food, shelter, water and sanitation among others, stated that 70 percent of the total population of older persons in the country who are in rural communities are mostly affected by these challenges.
She said the poor understanding has affected the inclusiveness of older persons in development and social services plans.
She said: “There are 14.8 million older persons living in Nigeria. 70 percent of them residing in rural areas. They have particular challenges , COVID-19 exposed these vulnerabilities and the fragility of existing systems older people are disproportionately impacted by the burden of poverty, poor health, disability, social isolation and exclusion, violence, lack of access to basic resources like food, shelter , water and sanitation among others. Such burdens are compounded when they follow a life course of poverty.
“The bedrock of these challenges is the poor understanding of ageing issues across the relevant sectors (MDAs) that have mandates concerning older persons as well as amongst the older persons themselves, their family members and their communities. This gap hinders age-centered service delivery and inclusiveness of older persons in development and social services plans.”
The objectives of the workshop are: to strengthen synergies for delivering care for the older persons; to secure commitment and support from Executive Secretaries/Chairmen/Permanent Secretary of State Primary Health Boards/Agencies for the establishment of units for the care of older persons; to strategise on strengthening institutional capacity for care of Older Persons within the PHC system by leveraging on existing interventions (WDC, CHIPS, Volunteers, NEMCHIC/SEMCHICs, among others.
