ICT Minister to busy youths : Take your elderly parents to nursing homes

The Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi has encouraged busy youths to always take their sickly parents and other elders under their care to accredited nursing homes.

Dr Baryomunsi who was officiating at the Premiering of the movie titled: The Care Giver at the Uganda National Cultural Centre (National Theatre) on Friday April 26, said that regulated homes have capacities of taking care of the elderly and thus taking them there is far better than living with them yet the youths are busy with work all day.

He noted that those who can however take care of their parents and other elderly persons by sending help to them in villages where they are residing can also continue.

“Recently Cabinet was discussing a policy on this subject and we are at a robust debate whether we should move and be like those who take our elders in homes or we stick to our traditional arrangement of children taking care,” he said.

Adding, “We left a provision for these kinds of homes to care for our elderly because the situation has changed so what you are doing is also supported by the policy. Soon we shall also be elderly and we shall need such services.”

The premiered Care Giver movie was produced by the management of Tick Bedside Nursing Care (TBS) that has been providing nursing care services to the elderly and other sickly people since 2016.

Dr Baryomunsi noted that the increasing life expectancy in Uganda as compared to the 1990s is an open reflection that Uganda needs such services.

“Mortality is decreasing, life expectancy is increasing. In early 1990s, the average was 43 years because of HIV/AIDS and other situations but now it has increased about 10 years ago it had gone to 63 years and latest statistics from [Uganda Bureau of Statistics] Ubos indicate life expectancy at birth has now gone to 68 years that means Ugandans survive a little bit longer that how it used to be because the conditions are improving with improved quality of life,” he said

Government, he said will continue supporting these services “in our setting we have not been taking such people in the homes of the elderly,”

Statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development indicate that there are 306,516 elders who are 80 years and above in Uganda.

In October last year, a section of opposition legislators tasked the government to prioritize the construction of free houses or establish nursing homes for the elderly people in Uganda to ensure they live a dignified life. Majority of these elders, the legislators argued, were living a terrible life.

Dr Baryomunsi yesterday said the nursing care services especially to elders suffering from chronic diseases is required now.

“The population of the older persons will continue to increase and therefore services like what TBS are doing are increasingly becoming relevant for Uganda the idea you have come with is timely because the environment around us call for these kinds of services now people live longer than how it was yet chronical diseases are also on the rise,” he said.

The movie’s producer who doubles as the executive director of TBS, Ms Margaret Bashaija, said it is good to use a professional nurse to care for dear ones especially the elderly.

“It is a necessary service. People are very sick outside there and we have to take care of them especially when we are too busy by getting such a nurse,”

The movie further highlighted the challenges bedside nurses go through when caring for the elders.

Ms Bashaija said the movie is a sensitisation strategy of what happens in the field when they are doing their work. It is based on a true story played through drama.

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