The Senate will return to a resolution dealing with a policy on ageing after it was introduced yesterday.
Senator Lisa Cummins introduced The Resolution: Parliament Of Barbados Take Note Of The 2023-2028 National Policy On Ageing which is attempting to rationalise how the elderly is seen in society and offer protection to them.
The policy went beyond social policy Cummins stated as she reiterated that Barbados is an ageing society and by 2051, one in every five Barbadians will be over the age of 65 as the fertility rate drops.
That dynamic, the Senate heard, was shaping every sector of national development and informed the design of communities and policies. There were many with the statistical one and one-and-a-half children.
An ageing population with people living longer puts pressures on pensions, longterm care, chronic disease management, labour market participation and the design of public services, the senator said.
Example
Cummins, the Leader of Public Business in the Senate, cited the example of a 75-year-old woman who had been working up to that point in the private sector because she was struggling financially.
“The policy on ageing is identifying the kinds of operational frameworks needed to be put in place to respond and identified that longer life expectancy meant that more years of chronic disease management were needed and, overall, a greater need for long-term care with a greater responsibility on families and the state to plan for older adulthood.
“The policy recognises the importance of strengthening community geriatric services, providing home and respite care, expanding the preventative health care systems, training for professionals in gerontology and the integration of social and health care systems,” the senator said.
The related population policy called for talent retention, skilled migration, diaspora engagement and workforce renewal, among other things, and as a result, the connected ageing policy is attempting to ensure that the two policies meshed, Cummins said.
As a result, the policy encouraged older persons’ participation within the labour market, reduced dependency through active ageing, protection of the rights and welfare of seniors, and strengthened systems that would support today’s youth when they are old.
“We’re preparing Barbados not just to survive the demographic shifting that we’re experiencing, but to be able to thrive and to have our people thrive in spite of it,” Cummins told the Senate.
The policy will see older people being recognised not as dependents, but as citizens with rights and a voice. The fragmented approaches catering to one specific demographic group will be codified in one place.
“We are translating from fragmented interventions to coordinated national systems so ageing is no longer the domain of one single ministry. It is an all-of-Government ministry with a coherent policy for all to follow,” Cummins said.
The policy will also take into consideration long-term care by families.
“We see many families taking their elderly family members to the hospital and leaving them there. I just know that I cannot imagine the idea that the person who raised me, who cared for me, who took care of me, who sacrificed for me, that when I am capable, even if it is hard, that I am just going to take that person and abandon them when they are unable to help themselves,” she said.
Long-term care facility
Cummins acknowledged that there may be some care-givers who don’t know where to turn and believed that was the safest play for their relatives, but said a structured long-term care facility was a central part of the policy to deal with that.
In that regard, she pointed to the geriatric hospital under construction, along with the proposed facility at Sterling.
She said the policy aligned Barbados with global best practices and positioned it to manage the demographic and social shifts being experienced in caring for the elderly.
The policy was building on what Barbados had done over the last ten years, including expanding the Home Help programme to 600 workers and Government subsidising the care for older persons in private residential facilities.
(AC)
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