How Government Is Taking Care of Elderly People

 

Introduction

The National Programme for the Health Care for the Elderly (NPHCE) is an articulation of the International and national commitments of the Government as envisaged under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) adopted by the Government of India in 1999 & Section 20 of “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007” dealing with provisions for medical care of Senior Citizen.

The programme has envisaged providing promotional, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services in an integrated manner for the elderly in various government health facilities.

The range of services will include health promotion, preventive services, diagnosis and management of geriatric medical problems. Districts will be linked to regional geriatric centres for providing tertiary level care.

Vision

1. To provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality long-term, comprehensive and dedicated care services to an Ageing population
2. Creating a new “architecture” for Ageing
3. To build a framework to create an enabling environment for “a Society for all Ages”

4. To promote the concept of Active and Healthy Ageing

Specific Objectives

1. To provide an easy access to promotional, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services to the elderly through community based primary health care approach.

2. To identify health problems in the elderly and provide appropriate health interventions in the community with a strong referral backup support.

3. To build capacity of the medical and paramedical professionals as well as the care-takers within the family for providing health care to the elderly.

4. To provide referral services to the elderly patients through district hospitals, regional medical institutions.

5. Convergence with National Rural Health Mission, AYUSH and other line departments like Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Core Strategies

1. Community based primary health care approach including domiciliary visits by trained health care workers.

2. Dedicated services at PHC/CHC level including the provision of machinery, equipment, training, additional human resources (CHC), IEC, etc.

3. Dedicated facilities at District Hospital with 10 bedded wards, additional human resources, machinery & equipment, consumables & drugs, training and IEC

4. Strengthening of 8 Regional Medical Institutes to provide dedicated tertiary level medical facilities for the Elderly, introducing PG courses in Geriatric Medicine, and in-service training of health personnel at all levels

5. Information, Education & Communication (IEC) using mass media, folk media and other communication channels to reach out to the target community

6. Continuous monitoring and independent evaluation of the Programme and research in Geriatrics and implementation of NPHCE

Supplementary Strategies

1. Promotion of public-private partnerships in Geriatric Health Care.

2. Mainstreaming AYUSH – revitalizing local health traditions, and convergence with programmes of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the field of geriatrics.

3. Reorienting medical education to support geriatric issue

Package of Services

Sub Centre: Health Education and home-based care to bedridden elderly persons and provide training to the family health care providers in looking after the disabled elderly persons.

Primary Health Centre: Conducting weekly geriatric clinic health assessment of the elderly persons and simple investigation including blood sugar, etc.

Community Health Centre: Conducting biweekly geriatric clinic, organizing rehabilitation services, domiciliary visits by the rehabilitation worker for bed-ridden elderly and counselling to family members for care such patients.

District Hospitals: Dedicated Geriatric OPD services, In-door admissions through 10 bedded geriatric ward, laboratory investigations and rehabilitation services

Regional Geriatric Centers: Providing tertiary care services through OPD and in-door admission in 30 bedded ward, development of specialized human resources through MD courses in geriatric medicine as well as research

Expected Outcomes

Regional Geriatric Centres (RGC) in 8 Regional Medical Institutions by setting up Regional Geriatric Centres with a dedicated Geriatric OPD and 30-bedded Geriatric ward for management of specific diseases of the elderly, training of health personnel in geriatric health care and conducting research;

Post-graduates in Geriatric Medicine (16) from the 8 regional medical institutions

Video Conferencing Units in the 8 Regional Medical Institutions to be utilized for capacity building and mentoring. District Geriatric Units with dedicated Geriatric OPD and 10-bedded Geriatric ward in 80-100 District Hospitals

Geriatric Clinics/Rehabilitation units set up for domiciliary visits in Community/Primary Health Centres in the selected districts

Sub-centres provided with equipment for community outreach services

Training of Human Resources in the Public Health Care System in Geriatric Care.

These are the major points and everything about the programme launched by the government to take care of elderly people in our country which I feel is a big move and more such initiatives must be taken as the world is also changing with a fast pace.

Written By - Chavi Goel