David Jamison is writing about those items that catch his attention now looking through an older person’s eyes. He lives in Belfast and since retiring recently he is trying to make sense of a fast-changing world and trying his best to keep up!
The purpose of the event was so that older people are provided an opportunity to debate their issues directly with key decision makers. Unfortunately word came out on Friday that Ministers would not be in attendance this time and as a result some participants decided to withdraw. Personally, while I agree the lack of Ministerial intervention did impact on the value of holding the event I did attend given the efforts made by a number of people to organise the event. In the end Emma Little Pengelly DFM and Mike Nesbitt Minister for Health were in attendance along with some MLAs who engaged with participants during the round table session so I think all was not lost.
The topics that were debated in the chamber where
- Equal access to appropriate health care and services
- Transport and Travel
- Education and Work
- Loneliness and Isolation
- Older People and Poverty
- Digital Exclusion and Awareness of Scams etc
- Housing for older people
- Rights of older people
All were pertinent and worthy of airing.
It has been of interest that in the draft Programme for Government there is no separate strand for the interests of older people and this was addressed by an Order Paper at the OPP (It was very interesting to see how the mechanics of the session was organised – there is a lot to it!)
The Order Paper stated… That this (older peoples) parliament expresses disappointment with the minimal mention of older people in the draft PfG and included calls to have this addressed.
Previously during question time of the assembly on 9 September Claire Sugden raised this and this was Addressed by the First Minister Mrs Michelle O’Neill who said.
“Everything that is littered across the nine priorities will affect older people; everything we are trying to do will affect older people. However it will also affect younger people so a lot of the issues are very much cross cutting. If we need to do something more with regard to referencing older people in particular let us have that conversation let us try and shape the end result.”
This message was reinforced by Mrs Little-Pengelly in her address to the OPP. Im sure this is a debate that will continue and time will tell if the interests of older people receive any enhancement in the final Program for Government. Personally, I don’t altogether disagree that issues are looked at in the context of the overall population as many if not most affect everyone e.g. housing health poverty etc but I do think that as we age we are disproportionally affected by some of these and require greater attention.
Mike Nesbitt took the opportunity to speak on reviewing our Health Services referencing the work of Professor Raphael Bengoa so I think we can see a lot of activity in this area during the life of the Program for Government.
Overall then an interesting event. Unfortunately perhaps due to the Ministers not being available it did lack something of a bite and as a result there appears to have been no media attention on the event. Having said that the event is back in action after lying dormant for a few years duing Covid etc and hopefully can be built in future years.
This is a guest slot to give a platform for new writers either as a one off, or a prelude to becoming part of the regular Slugger team.
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