Govt to pass Ageing Policy into law

2/10/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru

THE government has indicated its resolve to facilitate the passage of the National Ageing Policy into law.
It would also ensure the implementation of the new pension regime, extend the benefits of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to poor older persons and widen the scope of medical treatment for older persons under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Vice-President John Dramani Mahama said these measures were to guarantee a dignified life for older people in the country in retirement.
He made the commitment when a nine-member delegation of older people and representatives of Help Age Ghana called on him at the Castle, Osu, yesterday.
The visit was to brief the Vice-President on the activities lined up for the commemoration of the United Nations Day for Older Persons, which fell yesterday, and to draw the government’s attention to the challenges of the aged in Ghana.
October 1 was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as International Day for older persons in 1990 by Resolution 45/106, in recognition of the contribution of older persons and draw attention to their challenges.
The older people embarked on a procession through some principal streets of Accra. They had scheduled to have a dinner at the offices of Help Age Ghana at Osu, in Accra.
Mr Mahama said older people had sacrificed for the nation and the nation in turn had to cater for them in old age.
He noted that previously society catered for the elderly according to the country’s traditions and culture.
However, Mr Mahama said, such cultural ties had broken down with many people now concentrating on the nuclear families to the neglect of the extended family.
Besides, he said, the number of older people had increased over the years with the increase in life expectancy.
Those challenges, Mr Mahama said, required of the government to come up with far-reaching policy initiatives to cater for the aged.
As a step, he said, the Cabinet would give its approval to National Ageing Policy whenever it was presented to it by Help Age Ghana.
He said the government would facilitate any policy issues to be corrected before the passage of the policy.
“This is to ensure that the older people live in dignity, prosperity and being loved by society,” he said.
The Executive Director of Help Age Ghana, Mr Ebenezer Adjetey-Sorsey, appealed to the government to review the minimum premium under the NHIS which stands at 70 years downwards to 60 years — the proposed chronological age in the draft National Ageing Policy.
He requested that the diseases and drugs coverage under the NHIS should be made more relevant to the healthcare needs of older persons.
Mr Adjetey-Sorsey recommended that geriatric (the treatment of older persons) healthcare services be incorporated into the national healthcare system to provide older persons with more relevant healthcare services.
He asked for the curriculum of health training institutions to be reviewed as specified under the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy to enable them to train geriatric nurses and doctors to provide appropriate healthcare services for older persons.
He appealed to the government to pass the National Ageing Policy into law by the end of the year “to give national direction on ageing issues and provide the needed relief to older persons”.
The President of Help Age Ghana, Prof. Nana Araba Apt, said the world demography showed that more people were living longer because of improved medication and diets, and indicated that people lived longer in developing countries than in developed countries.
She, however, condemned the labelling of older people as witches and subjecting them to difficulties.