MORE ELDERLY PEOPLE are opting for day care centres over full-time nursing homes, a trend that meets the approval of the Ministry of Health.
During a tour of three privately-owned day care centres and nursing homes yesterday, Minister of Health John Boyce said elderly people preferred to stay at home, so a day care centre was the best alternative if practical.
“I have always said the best situation is for people to take care of their elderly loved ones at home; it is more therapeutic for all involved and our statistics show that 75 per cent of elderly people prefer not to be in a centre,” Boyce said.
“However, this is not always practical and that is where we take up the slack.”
Angela Crawford, the coordinator of the ministry’s advisory and inspection committee for nursing homes, said they were pleased people were recognising the benefits of keeping their elderly loved ones in familiar surroundings.
As such, she said they were finding more day centres being established than nursing homes.
However, Crawford said no such establishment would be allowed to operate without first passing strict guidelines for both the premises and staff.
“We help each individual home to meet the required standards,” she said. “We monitor, evaluate and there is a process before anyone is granted a licence.
“We have to ensure they have liability insurance; a fire certificate; a restaurant licence where applicable; a health certificate; there is a drug inspection component, and all staff would be required to have an updated nursing licence.”
Permanent Secretary Tennyson Springer said once the licence was granted, a day centre or nursing home could enter a contract with the ministry. Once that was done, he said there were two levels of care – for those who were ill and for those who were ambulant.
Boyce said the purpose of the tour was to take a look at a few of the privately-owned nursing homes in Barbados, some of which the ministry regulated. He said private homes were an important part of the care regime, adding they had 200 patients referred to private homes from the geriatric programme. He said Government was happy to work with the private sector in this regard as it was not an easy thing to find proper care for the elderly.
The three institutions visited were the Gentle Folk Nursing Home in Neils Plantation, St George, and Just Older Youth (JOY) and the Age Assist Highgate Retreat in Highgate Gardens, St Michael.
The manager of Gentle Folk, Jenise Belgrave, said they had 26 full-time residents and eight day care patients.
“We do everything different here. We have a spelling bee competition; picnics; a sports day and tea parties. We try to keep our residents as active as possible,” she said.
JOY is in its fourth week of operation. It is a strictly day care centre with a social club setting and does not offer live-in facilities. They currently accommodate seven guests.
Sharon Marshall, manager of Age Assist, said they were unique as they catered to individuals and maintained their dignity. She said they offered chair Pilates, bingo and chair yoga, among other activities, taking care of eight residents. (CA)