Those senior citizens homes
Editorial
Kaieteur News
March 19, 2007
A few days ago we had cause to comment on the aging population and on the need to adjust the age of retirement. However, given the gradual disappearance of the nuclear family there is going to be the growing need for senior citizens' homes.
Of course, the government had the Palms, which was called the Alms House because it provided shelter for the poor and destitute. The nature of the society was such that only poor people were neglected in their old age.
In Guyana there are a few senior citizens' home, the largest being Uncle Eddie's which opened its doors nearly 50 years ago. When it came into existence Guyanese were still family conscious and people concentrated on maintaining the family unit. The older members were the babysitters because by then husbands and wives were beginning to branch out into the world of work.
Guyana was catching up with the rest of the world where the place of the woman was no longer in the home. Indeed women had already joined the labour force. They were the weeders and cleaners on the sugar plantations; the teachers in the nursery and primary schools; the nurses in the hospitals and midwives responsible for delivering the babies that kept coming into the world.
However, the society was still male-oriented so for the greater part a married woman was expected to be at home raising the children. If she worked before she became a wife she was expected to resign and a great many did.
With the changing economic situation and above all, the growth of the women's liberation movement, more and more women began to enter the labour force. This should have meant a greater dependence on the grandparents or the older members of the family but this came at a cost.
The time came when these older people became ill and necessitated the presence of someone other than the children. Often, this meant that the working mother had to either quit her job or hire someone to look after the older person.
These days they are finding it easier to have the senior citizen placed in a Home where there is constant supervision and where access to medical care is never far away.
The Alms House became the Palms because it began catering for more than the destitute and abject poor. It became a home for some old people whose relatives recognised that they could not afford the time to offer the kind of care that some older people wanted.
Many paid for the services that the Palms offered but the stigma remained so people preferred the private home, if only because many felt that if they paid then the service would be so much better.
But gone are the days when the cost of running these senior citizens' homes was not as excessive because the exchange rate was not as prohibitive and the cost of living was not as high. Many of the founders of these homes had been residing overseas and perhaps they saw that they could contribute to the life of the older folk.
However, many of these homes are slowly deteriorating. Uncle Eddie's Home, perhaps the largest of the lot, has seen better days. The chalets need painting and whatever money the founder or his directors find to send to Guyana is surely not enough. It is not that the place has reached the point of no return but there is the saying that a stitch in time saves nine.
Sections of the flooring need repairs and while the creator of the home and generous sponsors have managed to provide protection at the doors and windows to keep out the thieves and other undesirables, there is need for money to recruit more staff.
The other homes are small, probably no more than dwelling houses and are easier to maintain. The government subvention would prove adequate. But the tendency of aiming the same subvention available to all is discriminatory. The larger homes would need more money.
It has long been recognised that the older people gave their best years to the development of the country and while there is the contention that the state pays them a pension, the money is so small that it could be ignored.
It may not be asking too much to have the state hire staff to provide a service at these homes. It may also not be asking too much to have medical personnel visit these homes regularly at the expense of the state in the same way the state provides such services at the Palms.
And with people living longer the need for even more support for the senior citizens' homes could become crucial. Many are full to capacity and there seems to be no move to have additional homes constructed.