Two UK-based NGOs have joined hands to provide better services to the elderly people after an assessment revealed that geriatric and palliative care had received very little attention in the quake-hit zone. 

“Although a lot of work has been done in the quake-hit area but an assessment in February has disclosed that the chronic needs of older people were not given proper attention,” said Asma Akbar of HelpAge International (HAI), a global network of not-for-profit organisations with an aim to work with and for disadvantaged older people worldwide to achieve a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. 

“There was concern for children and may be for the youngsters but it is a bitter fact that the elderly people which form a sizeable portion of our population were ignored,” she told Greater Kashmir at the conclusion of a 3-day workshop at Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences Muzaffarabad. 

Akbar said fragile health and mobility, neglect and abuse were factors that increased the vulnerability of elder women and men who had been displaced and separated from their families and communities. 

“They face additional challenges of becoming resource poor and sometime destitute due to loss of family support and projection,” she added. 
She said since the MERLIN UK–an NGO providing health and humanitarian assistance to populations affected by war and natural disaster, was already running five field hospitals in different remote locations of quake hit area, the HAI had partnered and seconded staff into it with the aim to strengthen the existing health program to better address older peoples’ specific health needs. 

The two NGOs have launched a series of training workshops in collaboration with the PaK health department for capacity building of local healthcare institutions and healthcare providers so that they can attend the elderly people in an organized way, she said. 

All other NGOs engaged in quake hit zone are also being persuaded to focus on geriatric and palliative care as one or two NGOs alone cannot cater to the growing needs of aging population, she said. 

About the workshop, she said it was attended by doctors, community and social workers and addressed by Project Coordinator Jane Teversham, Executive Director AIMS Dr Bashir ur Rehman Kanth, DHO Dr Sardar Mehmood Ahmed Khan and others. 
Its purpose was to create a pool of trainers who would disseminate this message in their respective areas, she added. 
According to Akbar, participants had stressed that geriatric and palliative care should be included as a speciality in the health sector. 
Akbar said they had also signed a memorandum of understanding with the DHO to train healthcare providers and integrate their services in the state’s health services system. 

Shahid Wani, project’s coordinator for activities told this correspondent, that it had been decided that the ‘International Day of the Senior Citizens’ would also be celebrated in PaK for the first time on Oct 1. 
In this connection, he said, a walk would be held in the town, most likely to be led by PaK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan and minister social welfare and women development Shamim Ali Malik. 
A script competition would also be held on the same issue with cash prizes for the three best writers, he said.