Population aging and challenges

(Baonghean) - Vietnam is entering the aging phase of the population with the proportion of the population over 60 years old approaching 10%, Nghe An alone accounts for more than 11%. This can be considered an achievement after many years of efforts to improve the quality and longevity of the elderly, but it comes with many challenges...

Effortfor the elderly

It was a surprise when I recently went to the mountainous district of Tan Ky, where more than 20% of the population is ethnic minorities, but there is a very active movement of practicing Thuc Vu Kinh health care and covering 95% of the communes in the whole district. The activities of the association of the elderly are very diverse, focusing on health care activities for the elderly such as periodic health check-up programs, health care exercises, bright eyes for the elderly... Nghia Dong commune, a semi-mountainous commune, nearly 20 kilometers from the center of Lat town, has just been proposed by the Provincial People's Committee to award a certificate of merit in the association movement.

Mr. Tran Dinh Le, Chairman of the Commune Elderly Association, led us to Hamlet 3 where the members of the Elderly Association are launching a movement to grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms. Although the economic efficiency is not high, the elderly are very excited because at this age they can still help their children and grandchildren and create income, having extra money. If they have the conditions, they discuss building a movement to "raise plastic pigs" to help each other in times of difficulty and misfortune or to establish charity clubs, self-care clubs. In particular, the members of the Elderly Association are the pioneers in building new rural areas in the commune. In addition to actively participating in many ideas on planning crop zoning, determining crop types in the fields, building infrastructure works in residential areas according to cultural lifestyles... there are also 31 elderly households participating in donating land to build rural roads with a total area of ​​nearly 1,200m2. That significant contribution has helped Nghia Dong become the leading unit in new rural construction in Tan Ky district with 16/19 criteria achieved.

Evaluating the activities of the Tan Ky District Elderly Association in recent years, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hong, Chairman of the Association, said: The Association's activities have increasingly focused on quality and thanks to that, the spiritual life and average life expectancy of the elderly in the whole district have increased significantly with an average of 73.5 years old, of which 43 are over 100 years old. The Association organizes periodic health check-ups for members twice a year. In particular, lonely and disabled people are examined at home by doctors and nurses and given free medicine, 87% of the members of the Elderly Association have health insurance cards. In terms of spirit, in addition to the Thuc Vu Kinh clubs, every commune has built a poetry club, many communes have built a shuttlecock throwing and badminton club, and built a wall newspaper.

Members of the "Elderly people helping the elderly" club in Tan Thiet hamlet, Nghia Lien commune, Nghia Dan district.

Throughout the province, the activities of the elderly association have developed strongly and diversified, in which 447/481 communes have elderly association clubs with nearly 170,000 members participating in cultural, sports and artistic activities. Especially with the help of the VIE 022 project - Project to Promote the Rights of Disadvantaged Elderly People in Vietnam, 81 intergenerational self-help clubs have been established in three communes in Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen and Thanh Chuong districts. By the end of 2013, 7 billion VND had been disbursed along with the accumulated capital of the clubs of nearly 600 million VND, helping nearly 3,000 members borrow capital for livestock farming, cultivation, agricultural product processing and grocery business.

In addition, with the help of Oxfam Hong Kong, the Provincial Women's Union in Tuong Duong district has established 8 clubs in 2 communes of Yen Hoa and Nga My (Tuong Duong) and is continuing the process to establish 42 more clubs in 10 communes in the district. "These clubs are good models to gather and help members to participate in activities to improve the spiritual and material life of club members, especially disadvantaged elderly people in the community. This is also a warm home, a place to exchange feelings, connect club members, contribute to caring for and promoting the role of the elderly, and build a strong association" - Mr. Tran Van Ich, Chairman of the Provincial Elderly Association said.

In addition, currently, the whole province has 69,470/342,000 members of the elderly association receiving regular social benefits in the community, over 70% of members have health insurance cards. Every year, about 150,000 elderly people receive regular health check-ups and have their health records maintained. The whole province currently has nearly 900 people living over 100 years old, the average life expectancy of the elderly in Nghe An is approximately 73, close to the national average.

The challenges

The rapid increase in the life expectancy of the elderly can be considered a great achievement in the cause of socio-economic development, in which there is an important contribution of the work of protecting and taking care of people's health. However, the increase in the number of elderly people has affected all aspects, from general economic growth to the labor market, pensions, health care system, cultural institutions... and put us in front of enormous challenges when the structure of the young population moves to the stage of population aging, especially when the time to prepare is only 6 years, much faster than other developed countries. With a relatively short transition period, it is not easy for us to have adequate preparation in terms of thinking, resources as well as policies and mechanisms, and thus, it is difficult to avoid confusion when entering the stage of population aging without timely adaptive solutions. In particular, the aging population structure comes early, when the country's economy is just in the period of escaping poverty, which poses a difficult problem of ensuring social security, especially for the elderly.

In fact, the elderly in Nghe An are quite numerous, accounting for more than 11% of the total population, but currently, in addition to those in groups such as retirees, veterans, etc., only about 50% of the elderly have health insurance cards, of which the number of poor and near-poor households is quite large. In addition, due to many shortcomings in staff, facilities, and medical equipment, people, especially the elderly, do not have the habit of regular health check-ups, and the number of elderly people living with diseases is quite large. A survey of 10 communes benefiting from Project VIE 022 in the mountainous district of Thanh Chuong showed that, out of a total of 3,850 members, the proportion of people with blood pressure accounts for 13.6%; bone and joint diseases 11.84%; eye diseases 10.34% and other diseases such as digestive, cardiovascular, underweight, etc.

Quynh Luu District Medical Center coordinated with Quynh Hong Commune Medical Station to examine and treat the elderly in the commune. Photo: Tran To

However, in the province, at present, hospitals have not established geriatric departments. Although there is a policy of giving priority to the elderly when going to hospitals for examination and treatment, these priorities have not been implemented or have not been implemented well because the hospitals are overloaded. Due to limited operating budget, community learning centers do not have specialized topics suitable for the elderly; cultural institutions in villages, hamlets, and residential blocks have not met requirements; the rate of cultural houses with playgrounds for about 70-100 elderly people is still low, not meeting the needs of the elderly... A sociological survey also shows that 70% of the elderly in our province have to depend on their children, the elderly in remote areas, and especially difficult areas; many places still have to live in poverty, do not know about community activities and have not accessed programs of the elderly association.

Mr. Tran Van Ich - Chairman of the Provincial Association of the Elderly said: Currently, in some places, the Party Committee, the government and the society still have incorrect awareness of the elderly, leading to the lack of active direction in adjusting the socio-economic development plan in accordance with the Party and State's policies on the elderly and the National Action Program on the elderly for the period 2012 - 2020. There has been no propaganda and education for people to fully understand the opportunities and challenges when our country enters the aging population, propaganda and implementation of the Law on the Elderly; some places leave it all to the association of the elderly.

To "anticipate" and do a good job of caring for the elderly in the "aging population" period, it is thought that in the coming time, all levels, sectors and the whole society need to have effective solutions. In particular, the elderly association at all levels needs to advise the Party committees and authorities on elderly work and coordinate with the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and relevant departments and sectors to well implement and be the core in the movement "All people care for, support and promote the role of the elderly". Organize well the emulation movement "Old age - Good example" with three contents: Caring for, promoting the role of the elderly and building a strong association; contributing to the implementation of local political tasks.

My Ha