Monday, November 13, 2006 Editorial: Aged-friendly
ON A crowded afternoon on payday, the only oasis of calm in Save More Supermarket in Lapu-Lapu City is the lane serving senior citizens.
The elderly have their purchases quickly scanned, packed and delivered to their vehicle. While the express lane also serves Prestige Card holders, members of this shopping privilege are select so senior citizens are spared from having to wait behind the long lines in other lanes. A seat is provided for the elderly waiting to pay.
Carmencita, 67, appreciates this convenience since she does her grocery on her own. After observing many times the cashier politely turn away younger shoppers who futilely wheedled or argued to be exempted, the grandmother of three says that being prioritized in the supermarket is one of the rare occasions when her registration card with the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) no longer seems like a mere piece of paper.
Many of the city’s eateries and restaurants extend the mandated 20-percent discount to the elderly, also notes Ninfa Rosal, public health midwife 3 assigned to the Mabolo Day Care Center for Elderly.
The Mabolo day care members, numbering about 60, frequently complain to her about the insufficiency of their pension and difficulties in availing of the 20-percent discount for medicine from pharmacies.
But it is no mean boost to the elderly when they can occasionally treat their grandchildren or close friends to eating out, says Rosal. Although diets and dental problems restrict the old from ordering fastfood, the chance to bond and do something for loved ones, instead of being isolated and perennially being dependent, gives meaning to those in their sunset years.
24/7 Caring
Gerontology, or the study of aging, needs wider dissemination and understanding among Cebuanos, believes Dr. Amparo Florida. Most people regard growing old as a “geriatric issue.”
But while geriatrics is the study of health and disease in later years, the overall well-being of older persons goes beyond physical health.
As a trained gerontologist and public advocate since 1992, Florida says gerontology emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach that taps biology, psychology, sociology, humanities, economics and public policy to care for older people, as well as help them cope with the physical, mental and social challenges of aging.
Aside from organizing the Mabolo Day Care Center for Elderly when she was the north health area medical officer in 1996, Florida initiated with partners the nongovernment organization (NGO), the Golden Center of Cebu Inc.
Now on its 10th year, the NGO held last Oct. 13-14 the second annual convention on gerontology and geriatrics. With the Cebu City Commission on Women and Family Affairs, the Golden Center sponsored the Nov. 10 seminar on “Understanding the Older Persons.”
Open to the public, the fora topics ranged from the conventional—“The Aging Lung,” “The Sugar-Free Life”—to the eye-opening: “Challenges in the Care of the Old and the Restless,” “Sexuality in the Sunset Years,” among others.
“The long-term care for the elderly begins at home,” Florida believes. But to ensure a better quality of life, the barangay, NGOs and the government must have programs to meet older persons’ need for “independence, care, participation, self-fulfillment and dignity.”
Golden cage
How prepared is Philippine society to take care of their elderly citizens?
Although people are living longer and the number of senior citizens is increasing, Filipino families are also going through drastic changes. Work demands and moral drift are eroding traditional practices of prioritizing the welfare of the elderly. When isolated or deprived of companionship, the elderly are more vulnerable to depression, hypochondria and other ailments.
Rosal admits that the membership of the Mabolo Day Care Center falls below 10 percent of the elderly population in the north health area. Aside from those who are bedridden or suffering from illnesses that limit their mobility, others prefer to keep within their villages and exclusive subdivisions.
She observes that among the well-off, the common practice is to have a caregiver look after older members of the family. But being looked after hardly meets the socialization needs of those who, because of fences, walls and long-held concepts of privacy, cannot just walk across the street to gossip with a neighbor.
If the regular Thursday meetings of the Mabolo Day Care Center are often eventful, it’s not only because the regulars sing, occasionally bicker and plan monthly excursions. Rosal has learned to expect the unexpected showing up during their meetings.
Whether it is the retired teacher who lives alone in a village or the Panagdait resident who walks to the Center and back again because she cannot afford a jeepney ride, these visitors soon become regular members because, Rosal reflects, the advancing years only wear out the body but not the need for attention and fellowship.
Now 55, the midwife says that being with the elderly has taught her the preciousness of life, the fruits of wisdom, and a deeper understanding of her own mortality.
