The energy that my wife and I have had to put into looking after the elderly in our family over the past two years is practically the equivalent of a part-time job for us who are already retired. And that doesn’t just count the times we spent with these people, which, ultimately, is the most heartwarming part of this time. Rather, it is travel, waiting periods for medical visits and especially the multiple telephone procedures with public or private services, with online waiting, for the slightest change of address, the slightest information or the slightest explanation on a form to be filled in, on the checkbox, with all the constraints related to the confidentiality of personal information.
The severity of this assistance to the elderly varies from week to week, as much for a semi-autonomous person who lives in private accommodation as for a person covered by an approved protection mandate, who lives in a residence for the elderly and for whom all the decisions affecting his or her welfare or property are the responsibility of the mandatary.
If there is a totally factual and undeniable fact of our society, it is the age of a person; when this person turns 65, this should trigger, in both private and public services, an automatic mechanism for welcoming this person and facilitating contact with him. A bit like the federal government’s Old Age Security, which offers us the possibility of requesting the universal contribution as we approach our 65th birthday.
For any individual, whatever their level of education, their professional or financial situation, and their state of health, reaching their 65th birthday should make them the priority client of a single government department and of a particular category. of services in any municipality or private enterprise. This requires that, in these administrative units reserved for them, the elderly can deal with staff trained for this clientele and aware of the full range of problems and solutions relating to this clientele.
Renewed civility
A true Ministry of Seniors (MA) should therefore be the sole body where a person 65 years of age and over (and their caregivers if applicable) is duly registered and to which they can turn, for any questions. relating to obtaining a public service, in terms of health, accommodation, transport, taxation, insurance, etc. It would be up to the staff of the MA to have the availability, openness and the necessary branches in all the other departments, so as to have before their eyes a complete portrait of the file of this senior client to guide him in any question he needs. submits.
The MA should also establish links with municipalities and private companies to facilitate the implementation in each of them of simplified and effective communication channels towards the elderly. Thus, not only the MA would constitute an adaptation of the State and the civil society to the phenomenon of aging, but it would also give the signal of a renewed civility and a recognition towards the people who devoted a much of their life to the vitality of society.