Caring for the Elderly

By Walter Mswazie, The Southern Times

April 2, 2012

Zimbabwe


 

The continued break down of the social fabric through the demise of the extended family system and values due to socio-economic malaise, among other factors, has gone beyond imaginable magnitudes.

This has seen the elderly being hard hit since many people have abandoned their social responsibilities to look after the now economically inactive populace.

There are many reasons behind families’ failures to carter for the welfare of the aged.

Chief among them is the economic decline being experienced in many parts of the world, which has seen more families surviving from hand-to-mouth.

In many cases, income levels have hit rock bottom.

The economically active generation can no longer sustain the extended family and thus leave the welfare of the elderly unattended.

With the meagre incomes that many working people earn, it has become difficult for many families to save, let alone take care of other members outside the nuclear family.

The will may be there but the resources are proving to be too little.

Most people have benefited from the extended family in one way or the other and a few, if any, would want to be dissociated from their kith and kin but economic inadequacies can sometimes make one behave otherwise.

There are other social factors behind the decline in importance of the extended family.

In many cases bad blood has resulted in family members not seeing eye-to-eye and vowing never to communicate or assist each other.

It is not unheard of to find family members accusing each other of witchcraft and thus not eager to be around one another.

The belief in witchcraft is quite ingrained in many African societies, and elderly people have been maimed or even killed after being accused of causing the death of family members.

This has seen elderly people abandoned to fend for themselves, with many of them reduced to beggars.

In other cases, neglect of the elderly is due to migrations to the Diaspora or the impact of HIV and AIDS.

The young and sexually active are the most vulnerable to the pandemic and when they die, they sometimes leave behind children that are taken into the homes of elderly people, who are not economically active.

This, says sociologist Professor Claude Mararike, requires families to plan better for their old age.

“Workers should learn to save for their future so that they will be able to lead a normal life when they are old.

“I know that things are hard for most people but it is prudent for every person to try by all means to live within their means and save from the little income they are earning,” he advises.

Tendai Garwi, who works for HelpAge in Zimbabwe, laments the neglect of the elderly by society and governments.

“It is disheartening to note the extent to which elderly people are neglected. Families are no longer taking care of their old, citing various reasons.”

She says old people’s homes are largely underfunded and the elderly often find themselves having to work hard in their twilight years to keep body and spirit together.

Historically, old people’s homes have survived on money from the relatives of the people staying there and donations from philanthropists.

In some cases, a small government grant is available.

But that kind of money is no longer flowing in as much as it used to and old people’s homes are struggling just as much as orphanages are.

An official in Zimbabwe’s Department of Social Services says old people can collect grants from the institution, but these are low.

“Old people in Zimbabwe are taken care of by the social grants but the challenge is that the same grant is used to support all vulnerable groups that include the disabled and orphans,” says the official, who asked not to be named for professional reasons.

There is not much most governments can do at present by way of improving the lot of the elderly, as other development challenges constrain them.

This means the onus largely lies on families and communities to take responsibility for the elderly.

Zimbabwe’s government has come up with an Old People’s Bill that is due to be tabled for debate this year.

The Bill seeks to improve the social grants awarded to the elderly among other initiatives that cater for their welfare.

However, there are fears that the Bill has taken too long to be tabled, apparently indicating that the matter is not being treated as seriously as other issues that are before the legislature.

At present, the country’s Treasury is battling to raise money for civil servants’ salaries, and from a politician’s and development expert’s point of view, public employees are a priority for resource allocation.

The danger of this is that the Bill could gather dust for many more months, or even years, though alternatively the President can invoke his executive authority and legalise it as a Statutory Instrument.

However, the need to attend to old people’s welfare can never be over-emphasised.

How we treat the aged and vulnerable and what premium we place on their welfare, says something about our values as societies.

It is thus every a family’s responsibility to take care of the needs of its elderly members.