The Church-run residential homes for the elderly face an uncertain future, Fr Victor Zammit McKeon, who is responsible for these homes, said yesterday.
He was speaking at a seminar on how to provide the elderly with a good quality of life, organised by the Mikiel Anton Vassalli Foundation.
The nuns in charge of these homes are getting old themselves, and there are not enough vocations to replace them. Therefore they will have to be replaced by lay people, and expenses will go up dramatically.
“If I did not believe in God, I would say they would not be sustainable, but as a believer I am hopeful,” he said.
Fr Zammit McKeon, whose 12-year responsibility for the Church’s residential homes for the elderly has come to an end, said that at present, just to break even on day-to-day expenses, each resident would have to pay Lm10.40 a day.
“However, if two elderly people – one rich and the other poor – applied for the same place at the same time, I would choose the poor one,” he insisted.
Labour leader Alfred Sant said that providing a decent living for the elderly would become a bigger problem as more people age and the elderly are living longer.
Hence, the welfare state, as well as the work of NGOs in the field, must be reorganised to respond to this changing scenario. Resources have to be used more efficiently, he said.
There are two priorities in this respect: sustaining the quality of life, and providing an adequate health service.
Dr Sant said there is an increasing percentage of elderly people who are not receiving enough social protection.
Efficiency, he said, should not be in mere economic terms but in social terms as well. However, government management has to be as cost-effective as possible even in the provision of social services.
“If this is not done, the whole welfare state will be endangered,” he insisted.
Dr Sant said the reform of the health care system and the care of the elderly were more urgent than the reform of the pensions system the government is proposing.
He also mentioned the ever-increasing problem of loneliness among the elderly, which, he said, should be tackled as well.
Marie-Louise Coleiro, the opposition’s main spokesperson for social solidarity, said the Labour Party was four-square behind the Church in its work in the residential homes for the elderly.
She highlighted that 20 per cent of people aged 65 and over are living in poverty, so the problem of maintaining an adequate standard of living for the elderly has become more acute.
Ms Coleiro said the party’s updated guidelines on economy and social policy will adopt a holistic approach to the elderly, looking not only at the social aspect but also at the economic aspect of the issue.
She called for more women to go out to work, saying however that there has to be an economy which can provide enough jobs to sustain these new jobseekers.
Ms Coleiro said the situation at St Vincent de Paule Residence (SVPR) and other government old people’s homes was “horrible”, with no space for new admissions. She told of a very dependent woman in Hamrun who needed to be admitted to SVPR.
When Ms Coleiro inquired into the matter with the authorities, she was told “not enough people were dying” at SVPR.
Labour’s spokesperson for the elderly, Silvio Parnis, said the government should study the way Church homes are run and learn from them.
Not only that, it seems that the report recently drawn up by the Auditor-General about problems at SVPR and other government homes for the elderly has been shelved as well, he said.
So some people now have to go to private homes for the elderly, where he did not exclude that abuses were taking place. That is why a White Paper on the elderly is needed, said Mr Parnis.
Moreover, he said local councils should make more use of the resources elderly people have, thus ensuring their integration in the local community.
Professor Louis Buhagiar explained how in 45 years’ time, the percentage of people aged 60 and over worldwide will double from 10 to 20 per cent. By 2050, it will rise to 33.3 per cent.
Likewise, in 45 years’ time, the percentage of people aged 80 and over all over the world will almost double from 11 to 19 per cent.
Moreover, women are living longer then men – the ratio of women to men at SVPR is 2:1, Prof. Buhagiar said.
Finally, Fr Adrian Cassar Pulis gave an overview of the various services given by the Caritas HelpAge Unit, whose aim is to promote means on how to integrate the elderly as much as possible into society.
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