THE LEVEL of assistance given to senior citizens through the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) and the National Health Fund (NHF) will come under scrutiny during phase two of a pilot being carried out in Jamaica and five other countries by HelpAge International.
The organisation, which focuses on issues affecting the elderly, said yesterday the pilot was being conducted in conjunction with the St. Catherine Community Development Agency, to look specifically at these programmes.
Jeff James, HelpAge's Caribbean Regional Representative, said the aim of the project was to increase the capacity of the development agency and its beneficiaries to carry out lobbying and advocacy and to train citizens in monitoring techniques. He said there will be case studies based on the experiences of older persons. The results will be shared across HelpAge's network.
ONE OF FIVE
The pilot, one of five being implemented worldwide with funding from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), also seeks to ensure that older persons get their fair share of development resources, that public services are being delivered to them and that more direct interface between older people and policy-makers take place.
Research from the first phase looked at the involvement of seniors in policy making and programmes which affect them and how various governments are shaping such policies and programmes.
It found seniors complained about inadequate pension provision, and the inability to keep up with high increases owing to inflation and the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.
Despite Government programmes, "the cost of medication weighs very heavily on the senior citizen. One case I heard, a gentleman ... had to decide between buying food and ... filling a prescription he had for a very urgent condition from which he is suffering," said 89-year-old Sybil Francis, one of the Caribbean's older persons representatives at the Madrid World Assembly on Ageing last year.
