‘Let’s support older persons in our society’ – Dr Phyllis Tawiah
Consultant Geriatrician, Dr Nana Phyllis Tawiah
Consultant Geriatrician, Dr Nana Phyllis Tawiah, has appealed to the younger generation in Ghana to realize that ageing is a natural process, which everyone is bound to experience adding that there is the need to support those elderly people because they had once contributed immensely to developing society.
According to Dr Nana Phyllis Tawiah who is also the queen mother of Aninkroma in the Atwima Nwabiagya North district in the Ashanti region, the elderly have been suffer from widespread perceptions that they are non-productive and worthless in modern society adding that the Ghanaians should be sensitized on the fact that elderly are in no way a burden on society, but just citizens, who had grown older.
It was, therefore, important to create a cordial atmosphere between the young and old to ensure the comfort of not only the elderly, but also to guarantee the wellbeing of the current youthful generation in their old age, she said.
Dr Nana Tawiah, who is the Director at the Centre for Ageing for Elderly Care at Metro Health Hospital in Kumasi, was speaking on OTEC FM’s breakfast show on Friday September 30, 2022 to celebrate the 2022 International Day for Older Persons under the theme “The Resilience and Contributions of Older Women”; the day is celebrated annually on October 1 worldwide to celebrate the lives of older persons.
Dr Nana Tawiah, who is also a lecturer at School of Medicine and Dentistry at the KNUST, passionately appealed to the public to visit and stay longer with them to know their current state. It is also marked to highlight both the opportunities and the challenges that ageing presents.
Dr Nana Tawiah noted that older women continue to meaningfully contribute to the socio-economic development of the country and therefore they must not be ignored.
She said “elderly women can be engaged in home management like cooking, security when the homes are quiet, care for grandchildren among others as ways making them active.”
“Inasmuch as they are been actively engaged through activities, it also serves as financial platforms for them to make them financially freedom,” she told the programme’s host Captain Koda.
“By visiting, you get the assurance that they are safe, healthy, and check around if they have issues that may need to be addressed to ease their stress,” the Physician Specialist also said.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
