The problem of an increasing aging population in Sri Lanka was highlighted recently at a workshop when the World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka Naoko Ishii stated, “Investing in healthy and productive aging is essential– and specially, given the speed of population aging, inaction is not a viable alternative.’
Often in countries such as ours the challenges of aging have a negative impact on economic growth and a host of complex situations arise due to the inability of the country to provide for old age income support and health care.
In the present economic context the family support for the elderly is fast diminishing. The traditional support system that prevailed has suffered a tremendous setback due to economic pressures on the younger members of the family which has led to the breakdown of the extended family system.
Gradually as greater migration of labour continues to occur from rural to urban areas, family support of the elderly tends to be limited. This is further aggravated by the fact that urban housing is limited and apartment life especially in various housing estates owned by the state are not designed to accommodate the elderly . Meanwhile the impact of economic conditions has also resulted in government and private sector imposing a statutory retirement age of 60 years , and this has led to, and will further increase in future years, the percentage of aged with reduced sources of income
It has been stated by Prof. K. Siddhisena from the Department of Demographics of the University of Colombo, that the aging population in Sri Lanka is growing at 3.3% per annum while the population is growing at 1.1% . Hence other support systems for elderly will become extremely important. Formal old age income support systems have limited coverage, inadequate benefits and are financially unsustainable. Thus currently most of the elderly must rely on a dwindling extent of family support or very low benefits from the social assistance programs. Health systems are also not ready to address the needs of an aging population. The treatment of non- communicable disease is outdated and relies on under-financing and under-treatment. Health systems do not provide continuous or integrated care for the elderly that allow for systematic screening for illness or disability, and many elderly patients who require secondary prevention do not receive it.
While family support naturally due to economic realities was being distanced , health care has become a much needed priority for the aged. The prevailing health care systems are not geared to address the needs of an aging population. And health insurance schemes for the aged are not readily available. In fact at present there is no available system that can attend to specific aging problems.
Furthermore geriatrics has not been considered as an important aspect of medical studies and as such medical students are provided with a meagre understanding of the needs of an aging population under a community health programme which really does not deal very much with the specific needs of the aged. With the increased specialization in medicine ,disease diagnosis and treatment even of the aged is often classified according to the various ailments they have and the totality of the needs of the person is not taken into consideration. Many of the aged have age related ailments which cannot be classified under a specific label.
Often many elders suffering from age related ailments do not have the opportunity to obtain the services they require , as such the initiative taken by the Sri Jayawardenapura to set up an Elders Well Being Clinic is not only noteworthy but extremely timely .
This Clinic came into being due to the vision of N.E.W Wijewantha present Chairman of the hospital who brought in his knowledge of the needs of the elderly which he had experienced as a former Director of Social services and Executive Director of Helpage to persuade the Hospital Board at Jayawardenepura General Hospital to approve the setting up of clinic to provide the elderly with the care they needed. Supervised by a team of young doctors and guided by Dr. Chintaka de Silva the clinic at the initial stage will identify the categories of health problems which affect those who register and seek the assistance of the clinic. General medical investigation will be performed on all patients and depending on the clinical problems identified they will be referred for special investigation
Social problems too will be identified and the personnel in the clinic hope to obtain the assistance of the Social service department to provide carers to look after patients or assist and educate carers in their homes. Volunteers too will be opted in when the need arises to attend to the specific problems of the aged.
The concept of the Elders Well Being Clinic is certainly ambitious and novel . It will pave the way for a more composite attitude towards the aged and provide them with the mental and physical understanding that is so essential in dealing with aging ailments. However it may be necessary that the hospital in the near future allocates a ward, that perhaps is not currently used, so that the aged who need to have their progress monitored could have a place within the hospital to stay in.
For instance a patient who has a speech disability due to age and is under therapy would gain the initial treatment in the hospital itself and thereby regain his confidence.
Since this is the first time that such a Clinic has come into operation, interested professionals both in the state sector and private sector who are now on retirement could perhaps set up a core group to work out the logistics as to how to assist the management of the hospital to further the objectives of this centre.
Essentially the success of this centre could have a ripple effect in that other hospitals even rural hospitals could use this concept to set up Elders Well Being Centres to help the aged with general physicians allocating one day of the week to attend to the aged who seek their assurance and care for their age connected ailments.
In Sri Lanka at present geriatric care is at an all time low, in fact there are no specific wards for geriatric ailments. Sri Jayewardenapura hospital has now set out a new direction for the care of the aged, those who have retired can be of active assistance with their suggestions and views to make the Elders Well being Clinic not only a success but also financially viable so that the Health Ministry will be persuaded to encourage the formation of more such clinics .
Copyright © Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.
January 6, 2009
SRI LANKA: Elders Well Being Clinics – A New Concept
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka / Daily Mirror / Opinion / January 6, 2009
The problem of an increasing aging population in Sri Lanka was highlighted recently at a workshop when the World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka Naoko Ishii stated, “Investing in healthy and productive aging is essential– and specially, given the speed of population aging, inaction is not a viable alternative.’
Often in countries such as ours the challenges of aging have a negative impact on economic growth and a host of complex situations arise due to the inability of the country to provide for old age income support and health care.
In the present economic context the family support for the elderly is fast diminishing. The traditional support system that prevailed has suffered a tremendous setback due to economic pressures on the younger members of the family which has led to the breakdown of the extended family system.
Gradually as greater migration of labour continues to occur from rural to urban areas, family support of the elderly tends to be limited. This is further aggravated by the fact that urban housing is limited and apartment life especially in various housing estates owned by the state are not designed to accommodate the elderly . Meanwhile the impact of economic conditions has also resulted in government and private sector imposing a statutory retirement age of 60 years , and this has led to, and will further increase in future years, the percentage of aged with reduced sources of income
It has been stated by Prof. K. Siddhisena from the Department of Demographics of the University of Colombo, that the aging population in Sri Lanka is growing at 3.3% per annum while the population is growing at 1.1% . Hence other support systems for elderly will become extremely important. Formal old age income support systems have limited coverage, inadequate benefits and are financially unsustainable. Thus currently most of the elderly must rely on a dwindling extent of family support or very low benefits from the social assistance programs. Health systems are also not ready to address the needs of an aging population. The treatment of non- communicable disease is outdated and relies on under-financing and under-treatment. Health systems do not provide continuous or integrated care for the elderly that allow for systematic screening for illness or disability, and many elderly patients who require secondary prevention do not receive it.
While family support naturally due to economic realities was being distanced , health care has become a much needed priority for the aged. The prevailing health care systems are not geared to address the needs of an aging population. And health insurance schemes for the aged are not readily available. In fact at present there is no available system that can attend to specific aging problems.
Furthermore geriatrics has not been considered as an important aspect of medical studies and as such medical students are provided with a meagre understanding of the needs of an aging population under a community health programme which really does not deal very much with the specific needs of the aged. With the increased specialization in medicine ,disease diagnosis and treatment even of the aged is often classified according to the various ailments they have and the totality of the needs of the person is not taken into consideration. Many of the aged have age related ailments which cannot be classified under a specific label.
Often many elders suffering from age related ailments do not have the opportunity to obtain the services they require , as such the initiative taken by the Sri Jayawardenapura to set up an Elders Well Being Clinic is not only noteworthy but extremely timely .
This Clinic came into being due to the vision of N.E.W Wijewantha present Chairman of the hospital who brought in his knowledge of the needs of the elderly which he had experienced as a former Director of Social services and Executive Director of Helpage to persuade the Hospital Board at Jayawardenepura General Hospital to approve the setting up of clinic to provide the elderly with the care they needed. Supervised by a team of young doctors and guided by Dr. Chintaka de Silva the clinic at the initial stage will identify the categories of health problems which affect those who register and seek the assistance of the clinic. General medical investigation will be performed on all patients and depending on the clinical problems identified they will be referred for special investigation
Social problems too will be identified and the personnel in the clinic hope to obtain the assistance of the Social service department to provide carers to look after patients or assist and educate carers in their homes. Volunteers too will be opted in when the need arises to attend to the specific problems of the aged.
The concept of the Elders Well Being Clinic is certainly ambitious and novel . It will pave the way for a more composite attitude towards the aged and provide them with the mental and physical understanding that is so essential in dealing with aging ailments. However it may be necessary that the hospital in the near future allocates a ward, that perhaps is not currently used, so that the aged who need to have their progress monitored could have a place within the hospital to stay in.
For instance a patient who has a speech disability due to age and is under therapy would gain the initial treatment in the hospital itself and thereby regain his confidence.
Since this is the first time that such a Clinic has come into operation, interested professionals both in the state sector and private sector who are now on retirement could perhaps set up a core group to work out the logistics as to how to assist the management of the hospital to further the objectives of this centre.
Essentially the success of this centre could have a ripple effect in that other hospitals even rural hospitals could use this concept to set up Elders Well Being Centres to help the aged with general physicians allocating one day of the week to attend to the aged who seek their assurance and care for their age connected ailments.
In Sri Lanka at present geriatric care is at an all time low, in fact there are no specific wards for geriatric ailments. Sri Jayewardenapura hospital has now set out a new direction for the care of the aged, those who have retired can be of active assistance with their suggestions and views to make the Elders Well being Clinic not only a success but also financially viable so that the Health Ministry will be persuaded to encourage the formation of more such clinics .
Copyright © Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.
The problem of an increasing aging population in Sri Lanka was highlighted recently at a workshop when the World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka Naoko Ishii stated, “Investing in healthy and productive aging is essential– and specially, given the speed of population aging, inaction is not a viable alternative.’
Often in countries such as ours the challenges of aging have a negative impact on economic growth and a host of complex situations arise due to the inability of the country to provide for old age income support and health care.
In the present economic context the family support for the elderly is fast diminishing. The traditional support system that prevailed has suffered a tremendous setback due to economic pressures on the younger members of the family which has led to the breakdown of the extended family system.
Gradually as greater migration of labour continues to occur from rural to urban areas, family support of the elderly tends to be limited. This is further aggravated by the fact that urban housing is limited and apartment life especially in various housing estates owned by the state are not designed to accommodate the elderly . Meanwhile the impact of economic conditions has also resulted in government and private sector imposing a statutory retirement age of 60 years , and this has led to, and will further increase in future years, the percentage of aged with reduced sources of income
It has been stated by Prof. K. Siddhisena from the Department of Demographics of the University of Colombo, that the aging population in Sri Lanka is growing at 3.3% per annum while the population is growing at 1.1% . Hence other support systems for elderly will become extremely important. Formal old age income support systems have limited coverage, inadequate benefits and are financially unsustainable. Thus currently most of the elderly must rely on a dwindling extent of family support or very low benefits from the social assistance programs. Health systems are also not ready to address the needs of an aging population. The treatment of non- communicable disease is outdated and relies on under-financing and under-treatment. Health systems do not provide continuous or integrated care for the elderly that allow for systematic screening for illness or disability, and many elderly patients who require secondary prevention do not receive it.
While family support naturally due to economic realities was being distanced , health care has become a much needed priority for the aged. The prevailing health care systems are not geared to address the needs of an aging population. And health insurance schemes for the aged are not readily available. In fact at present there is no available system that can attend to specific aging problems.
Furthermore geriatrics has not been considered as an important aspect of medical studies and as such medical students are provided with a meagre understanding of the needs of an aging population under a community health programme which really does not deal very much with the specific needs of the aged. With the increased specialization in medicine ,disease diagnosis and treatment even of the aged is often classified according to the various ailments they have and the totality of the needs of the person is not taken into consideration. Many of the aged have age related ailments which cannot be classified under a specific label.
Often many elders suffering from age related ailments do not have the opportunity to obtain the services they require , as such the initiative taken by the Sri Jayawardenapura to set up an Elders Well Being Clinic is not only noteworthy but extremely timely .
This Clinic came into being due to the vision of N.E.W Wijewantha present Chairman of the hospital who brought in his knowledge of the needs of the elderly which he had experienced as a former Director of Social services and Executive Director of Helpage to persuade the Hospital Board at Jayawardenepura General Hospital to approve the setting up of clinic to provide the elderly with the care they needed. Supervised by a team of young doctors and guided by Dr. Chintaka de Silva the clinic at the initial stage will identify the categories of health problems which affect those who register and seek the assistance of the clinic. General medical investigation will be performed on all patients and depending on the clinical problems identified they will be referred for special investigation
Social problems too will be identified and the personnel in the clinic hope to obtain the assistance of the Social service department to provide carers to look after patients or assist and educate carers in their homes. Volunteers too will be opted in when the need arises to attend to the specific problems of the aged.
The concept of the Elders Well Being Clinic is certainly ambitious and novel . It will pave the way for a more composite attitude towards the aged and provide them with the mental and physical understanding that is so essential in dealing with aging ailments. However it may be necessary that the hospital in the near future allocates a ward, that perhaps is not currently used, so that the aged who need to have their progress monitored could have a place within the hospital to stay in.
For instance a patient who has a speech disability due to age and is under therapy would gain the initial treatment in the hospital itself and thereby regain his confidence.
Since this is the first time that such a Clinic has come into operation, interested professionals both in the state sector and private sector who are now on retirement could perhaps set up a core group to work out the logistics as to how to assist the management of the hospital to further the objectives of this centre.
Essentially the success of this centre could have a ripple effect in that other hospitals even rural hospitals could use this concept to set up Elders Well Being Centres to help the aged with general physicians allocating one day of the week to attend to the aged who seek their assurance and care for their age connected ailments.
In Sri Lanka at present geriatric care is at an all time low, in fact there are no specific wards for geriatric ailments. Sri Jayewardenapura hospital has now set out a new direction for the care of the aged, those who have retired can be of active assistance with their suggestions and views to make the Elders Well being Clinic not only a success but also financially viable so that the Health Ministry will be persuaded to encourage the formation of more such clinics .
Copyright © Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.
