Brief summary of presentation of information made:

The meeting began with an introduction by the moderator, Dr. Jane Barratt the Secretary General, International Federation on Ageing to all the panellists speaking: H.E. Ms. Barbro Westerhom, Professor Andrew Scott Ms. Aura Sevilla, Grace Chan and Mr. Steven SJ Lee.

 

Professor Andrew Scott, Professor of Economics, London Business School
Lessons learned from Covid-19 and the effect it has on the older generation:

• Value of health and older lives
• Diversity impacts those who have access to proper health care
• There is a need for preventative health care
• There needs to be a way to educate older persons on digital healthcare and how to easily use it.

 

Problems caused by Covid-19:

• Those who are most disenfranchised are the most affected and this tends to be vulnerable elderly people.
• Those with the least number of resources are hit the hardest.
• There was a huge inadequacy of existing health institutions available for the older generation.
• Employment for elderly persons was scarce or even non-existent due to the risk of covid affecting them.
• Isolation affected this generation the most.

H.E. Ms. Barbro Westerhom, Member of Parliament, Sweden

• Because of Covid-19, elderly people felt isolated and not needed in society. A man in in his early 100’s had children in their 70’s and none of them could see one another. The man chose to be euthanised instead of living, because there was nothing for him to look forward to.

 

Dr. Ad van Berlo, Chief Executive Officer and R&D Manager, Smart Homes

• Many elderly people have issues with technology due to the lack of privacy it affords. However, technology is an enabler to help connect elderly individuals with healthcare professionals. Still today, over 50% of the world is not connected to the internet.

 

MS. Aura Sevilla, Programme Consultant for Southeast Asia and Older Workers

• She met an 80-year-old woman with hypertension, who continued to sell products in the streets despite covid lockdown restrictions. Her reasoning was that she would rather die from Covid than die from hunger because she wouldn’t be able to pay her bills.
• The pandemic has spotlighted elderly individuals still in the workforce. 3 out of 4 elderly persons are informally employed across the globe. They have no pension, so working is their safety net. In addition to this, informal workers across the world didn’t have access to P.P.E, so they either had to provide it themselves or work without any protection.

What was of particular significance to share with The Salvation Army globally?

• There are no formal institutions supporting a healthy ageing society, but because of Covid-19 it is clear that this is what is needed.
   
• Where possible The Salvation Army has an opportunity to be able support the elderly through providing support to healthcare and making it accessible. Whether that’s providing the technology to make it easily accessible or physically helping through providing preventative healthcare such as P.P.E. and more.
   
• The Salvation Army also has an opportunity to continue to support it’s elderly employees by giving them pensions and support outside the workforce.

Web links for more information

Welcome (ifa.ngo)
Home | stakeholdergrouponageing.org