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WORLD
Australia:
Transition Care: Helping Older Territorians Regain their Independence (April 14,
2009)
The Australian government's $293.3 million Transition Care
Program has helped many older people in the Northern Territories since November
2007, allowing most of them to move from hospitals and back to their own homes.
Transition care provides low intensity therapy services, such as physiotherapy,
dietetics, podiatry and personal care. Indigenous elders, who are community
leaders, find transition care very helpful since they can return to caring for
their families and communities. In this way transition care improves not only
individual but the community.
World:
OECD Fact Book 2009: Public and Private Pension Expenditures (March
2009)
This OECD Fact Book examines the development of public and
private pensions. In recent years, governments have engaged private sector
management within statutory pension systems. This trend has been particularly
strong in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, but also in OECD
countries like Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Fourteen of the thirty
OECD countries have some form of mandatory or quasi-mandatory private pension in
place. The private pension schemes are increasingly considered part of the
national retirement income system rather than just a source of greater benefits
for higher income employees. But is this good public policy?
United
Kingdom: Pain in Older People; Reflections and Experiences from an Older
Person's Perspective (January 9, 2009)
Older people in the UK,
numbering nearly 5 million people aged 65 or over, suffer from some pain or
discomfort. Many elders live in persistent pain but show remarkable
determination to go on living their lives as normal. This report highlights the
ignorance among health professionals about pain suffered by older people. Such
ignorance contributes to unnecessary and unacceptable suffering among old
people. Elders are less likely than younger persons to experience good pain
management. Because pain is highly subjective and older persons don't want to
complain, pain is likely to go under-reported. Pain is not an inevitable or
normal part of ageing. Such discrimination and ageist attitudes have to be
challenged with the recognition of how pain impacts the quality of life and
dignity of older people.
World:
Population Ageing. Towards an Improvement of the Quality of Life
(2009)
The present book was based on presentations made at the 2007
international conference of the Belgian Platform on Population and Development.
Unlike popular perceptions, population aging is a global phenomenon and not
limited to the developed world. For example, a country might not be able to
provide health benefits or a universal pension due to very low economic
standards. African countries are a case in point. They must confront HIV/AIDS,
hunger, disease and poverty and lack the capability to deal with an aging
population and to provide pensions that are urgently needed. The authors urge
international programs to help poor nations deal with 'population ageing.' With
the Millennium Development Goals in place, we can expect lower fertility and a
shift in the age composition in the future.
Indonesia:
Secondment of Specialist on Older Persons Help Age /PCWG/ UNHCR Geneva,
Switzerland, (August - September 2008)
Data from UN Department for
Economic and Social Affairs indicate that the Indonesian population is both
getting older and living longer. In 2006, 8% of roughly 19 million Indonesian
were age 60 or over, but by 2050 the number will increase to 67 million an
account for 24% of the population. The report focuses on the gender imbalance
inherent in aging that increases the social and economic burdens for older
Indonesians women. While legislation to protect older persons exists, abuses of
elders are common but go un-reported. Natural disasters stretch families coping
mechanisms. As a result, families are not able to protect their older members.
The UN has demonstrated that older persons are often overlooked in emergencies
and ignored afterward during the rehabilitation
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