October 1 marks UN Day for older persons

There are a few notable national actions by governments over the years to give some recognitions and alleviate the plight of older persons in Ghana, but these have been woefully inadequate, Ebenezer Adjetey-Sorsey, Executive Director, Help Age Ghana, said on Wednesday.

He said this in a statement to mark the United Nation’s (UN) Day for Older Persons which falls on October 1.

The Day was declared by the UN General Assembly in 1990, and this year's theme was "Leaving No One Behind - Promoting a Society for All."

Mr. Adjetey-Sorsey said other actions to ensure the well-being of the aged include the declaration of 1st July as Senior Citizens Day, approval of the yet to be implemented National Aging Policy by Cabinet in October 2010 and its official launch in December 2011.

Other activities include coverage of poor older persons who are 65 years and above by the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP), and the exemption of older persons from the payment of premium under the National Health Insurance Scheme.

The Executive Director said older persons in Ghana today faced many challenges including, but not limited to inadequate healthcare services, rights violation and income insecurity.

He said geriatric healthcare services were yet to be mainstreamed into the health system to provide relevant and inadequate healthcare services for older persons.

"About 65 per cent of pensioners receive monthly pension of 200 Ghana cedis in 2014 in this harsh economic conditions and only about 15 per cent are lucky to be receiving pension at the end of the month," Mr. Adjetey-Sorsey said.

He said presently, only 20 per cent of people working in the formal, be it government or private sector, were members of a pension scheme.

He appealed to government to, without further delay, put in place the required structures to start the implementation of the National Aging Policy to address the many challenges older persons are facing, adding: " we should not waste further time in the establishment of the proposed National Council on Aging."

Government should also give the full support to the implementation of the Scale-up Plan on Aging and Health developed at the national stakeholders planning workshop in Accra in August 2013 with the support of the World Health Organisation.

Mr. Adjetey-Sorsey called for strategies to be put in place to increase enrolment onto pension schemes, especially for workers in the informal sector, and also improve the indexation of Pensions to reduce extreme poverty at old age and steps must be taken to increase older persons registered for LEAP Cash Transfer Programme.