The recently-launched nationwide campaign against obesity is aimed to promote a healthy lifestyle among the young to ensure, as much as possible that they will be able to live longer and free from chronic diseases. Such a lifestyle would also help avert the onset of what could well become a health crisis in a few decades’ time if no preventive action is taken immediately, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday, addressing a conference on ageing.

The large majority of the world’s nations are experiencing a demographic explosion of their senior populations, Dr Gonzi said. By the middle of the century, as much as 22 per cent of the global population would be made up of people aged 60 years or over, up from today’s 11 per cent.

“This exponential increase is a clear sign that the old methods of senior care will not do and that change and innovation are needed. More so, although each country must tackle the problems posed by the ageing of its population largely on its own, it must first strive to learn from the experiences that other countries have had in implementing novel systems of elderly care and to take on board whatever has been successful and fits its unique circumstances.”

Both value and expediency must be the guiding principles of any service that is provided. “By value I mean the dignity of the elderly who must not be looked upon as the embodiment of a social problem that needs to be dealt with but as human persons whose condition we must do our utmost to improve,” Dr Gonzi argued.

Together with demographic pressures, it was clear that a better recognition of such dignity has been a decisive factor in the development of senior care in the Western world. The idea of person-centred care, though not yet universally practised, was now a staple feature of modern discourse on senior care. In practice, this has resulted in countries moving their systems of senior care away from the practice of institutionalisation of the elderly towards a new approach in which care is provided in the community and directly at the senior citizen’s home. This doesn’t mean, however, that institutions like residential homes and nursing homes have no place in a modern system of senior care, or that they should be seen as a necessary evil in cases of severe dependency.

In line with international trends, the field of state senior care here in Malta has been in a state of positive ferment for the past couple of decades or so. In the late eighties, a broad range of services for the elderly living in the community was introduced, together with a number of senior residential homes that were built in the heart of the towns and villages they are situated in. Very recently, the first state project of sheltered housing for the elderly was completed and others are in the pipeline.

“I am confident that we are on the right track to achieving the right balance between institutional care and home- and community-based care. Demography dictates a growing demand for beds in state-financed homes and for the provision of community-based services. In response to this situation, we are gradually boosting the capacity of our main nursing home while a brand new residential home is in the process of being constructed in the north of the island. This new residential home will also bolster our community services in that some of its services will be offered to elderly people who do not reside in the home. In our quest to modernise our system of senior care, our focus has not been merely on increasing the provision of services but also on enhancing the quality thereof so that the needs and expectations of our senior citizens can be better met.”

An excellent way to achieve the delicate balance between quantity and quality of care was by establishing partnerships with the private sector, the Prime Minister said. In recent years, the government had entered into a number of partnerships with the private sector for the running of its residential homes. The latest agreement that was signed with a private care provider also included the initial financing and the construction of the home, allowing the government to concentrate on its core responsibility – that of providing care.

“I am therefore confident that these partnerships are setting the basis for the future of senior care in our country,” he said.