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Considering the Elderly

Nov 02, 2020 Editorial

Writer and physician, Dr. Ira Byock, in his book, The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life, speaks of an interview being done with anthropologist Margaret Meade in which the interviewer asks about signs indicating evidence of civilization. Meade indicates that the discovery of a healed femur, a human thigh bone, an indication that the person who broke the bone had been giving care enough to survive the injury.
Dr. Byock’s book is a meditation upon how it is a modern society considers not only healthcare but general policy for the elderly, particularly those nearing the end of life. It is a call for transformational thinking in care of the elderly, at a national policy level in America, a lesson that we in Guyana need but might be unqualified for.
Last week, this paper carried a story that the National Commission on the Elderly (NCE) was active again – this is a story that comes with an unfortunate history. Successive administrations have kicked the can so far down the road that persons who were young people when the original Senior Citizen’s Policy Committee (SCPC) was established sometime in the murky past would themselves be elderly now. While the David Granger administration was noted for the virtually boundless gerontocracy that it placed in the upper echelons of the public sector, the fact that the PPP itself was no stranger in finding jobs for the old boys and girls is itself an indicator that something is seriously lacking in the socio-economic safety net for older people, yet neither administration has shown any commitment to changing that situation.
Consider that the successor of the SCPC, the Commission of the Elderly was established in 1996, a quarter century ago. At some point, that Commission matured into the National Commission on the Elderly, one that by the time 2010 rolled around already had complaints of not having met for two years prior, a situation that would only be rectified a further two years after that when a new board was appointed in July of 2012.
When the Granger administration announced in April of 2017 that it was working on drafting a strategic plan for the elderly – presumably one separate and distinct from its staffing of senior public posts – there was no mention of the NCE whatsoever as being part of the process. Six months later – in November of 2018 – we were informed by then Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan that the strategic plan would be moving forward, with 2018 slated for such related measures as legislation to enforce standards in elderly-care facilities and a mobile money programme for e-payments of pensions.
None of this was of course actually done, and two years later, during the government’s Commemoration of the International Day of the Elderly 2019 in October, the National Commission of the Elderly was finally resurrected, at least in reference. As the November 1 edition of the Guyana Chronicle (it should be noted that IDE is celebrated on October 1, a month prior) informs us:
“The National Commission for the Elderly is in the process of establishing guidelines to raise the operating standards of senior citizens’ homes across the country, as the draft national policy on aging is expected to be completed soon. This is according to Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, during a recent address, in observance of International Day of the Elderly, at St. Marks Anglican Church, Enmore, East Coast Demerara.”
There was again no progress after that, with Harmon – at the vanguard of the Granger political machinery – going on to lead the charge in attempting to deny Guyanese, young and old, the right to have a government legitimately elected, with not insignificant forays into dementia thrown in for good measure.
Now that we have the National Commission for the Elderly established under a new old administration, it is time that we as a presumably civilized country finally get serious in how we commit to this important mechanism. We cannot continue to give it only nominal respect, provide it monies at our convenience, fail to adequately house it, give it nothing constructive to do, forget it exists for long gaps of time and only include it when it makes us look good – in short, we cannot treat it like how we treat our elderly.

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