Medical experts advocate special budget for elderly

Medical experts have called on the federal government to create a special budgetary allocation dedicated for the care of the elderly.

They made the call at a symposium organised by the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, at its Dementia Week with the theme: “Remember a Person: Coping with the Realities of Dementia”, on Thursday in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

A professor of nursing science and sociology in the University of Lagos, Fatai Badru, in his lecture, called on government to urgently create a database for care of the elderly in the country.

Badru noted that when old age set in there was dwindling income and as such they needed help not just from their families, but also government.

He contended that assisting them would only be possible if there was a perfect database so as to factor them into the annual budgetary allocations of government

In his presentation, Dr Lawrence Adebusoye, who heads the geriatric center of the University Teaching Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, disclosed that dementia affected five to 11 per cent of the population globally, adding that it was most common in the North Central part of the country.

Adebusoye called on families to engage their elders in social engagements, book reading and generally provide them a homely environment.