Parliamentarians call for national support for the aged

Accra, Feb. 19, GNA - Members of Parliament on Thursday called for appropriate policies and legislation that would adequately cater for older persons.

They said old age indeed would catch up with everyone some day therefore, there was the need for society to put up programmes, in addition to the extended family system to cater for the aged who still have vital roles to play in society. At an ageing workshop for members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and other state enterprises, challenges of the aged and retirees from active service were made bare by officials of HelpAge Ghana.

It prompted views from the Parliamentarians who agreed to the early passage of a National Ageing Policy in Ghana. HelpAge Ghana, an NGO, organised the workshop to upgrade the knowledge of the Parliamentarians on current ageing issues and solicit their views on efforts to put in place programmes to support the aged. Mr. Ebenezer Adjetey-Sorsey, Executive Director, HelpAge Ghana, said though government recognised the aged and institutionalised programmes such as Senior Citizens Day and Annual Presidential Lunch for Senior Citizens, there were still more to be done with policy on documentation to ensure the rights of older people were respected.

These include right to health care, property and inheritance both in and outside marriage and inhuman customary practices. He recommended that the age for exemption from premium on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) should be reduced from 70 years to 60 years, a concern shared by most of the aged.

Mr. Adjetey-Sorsey noted that the draft ageing policy at the Ministry for Social Welfare must be considered and approved by Cabinet before the end of the year to give national direction to issues on ageing and provide needed relief to older people.

He called for annual increase in pension to reflect living conditions in the country as well as the accelerated expansion of the LEAP cash transfer to cover more poor older people without pension in other districts of the country.

Mr. James Aryeetey of Ghana AIDS Commission said though everyone was at risk of HIV/AIDS, many health and relief workers thought that older people were no longer sexually active and therefore not at risk so they forgot to include them in their health campaigns, "However older persons are very much at risk".

He therefore called for the incorporation of the elderly in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and formulation of specific programmes to address their health needs including provision of information, treatment and prevention as well as safe methods of caring for person living with HIV.