Dr Emem Omokaro, the Director-General (DG) of the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC), says older persons in Nigeria should expect quality care, where geriatric care giving will become a certified skilled area.
Omokaro disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the final validation of National Occupational Standard in geriatric social care on Friday in Kaduna.
She said that the NSCC would cause geriatric social care skills to be admitted into the national skills qualification framework.
“We also want to develop an occupational standard which will be the minimum in certification of care givers and in accreditation of care agencies, facilities, training providers, centres and all that goes into care quality assurance.”
She therefore, said older persons should expect the coming of quality care, where Nigeria would begin to build a skilled paid workforce for geriatric care.
She said the NSCC had signed an MoU with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to develop to care quality assurance in geriatric social care.
Omokaro noted that MoU was in line with the NBTE’s mandate as a regulatory body in charge of skills acquisition.
She also noted that in Nigeria, traditionally, care of older persons was seen as family concern.
In that regards, she therefore lamented that older persons were left with a standard of care not developed with a national benchmark and in hands of any person.
She also said that global trends had affected care giving, where migration and urbanisation among other factors left huge vacuum on the care of older persons.
According to her, because the care is not standardised, and care givers are not trained or certified, the older persons suffered abuse.
She, therefore, noted that the NSCC had the mandate to identify and cater for the needs of the older persons.
She mentioned the needs to include health and social care.
“It is a flagship initiative to bring professionalism and sanity in the area of care for older persons and a long term care system for them.”
Further speaking on the MoU with NBTE, she said the NSCC wanted to cause care giving for older persons to be recognised as a skil.
Omokaro noted that the NSCC would ensure that all the care giving agencies that sprang up out of necessity were certified and all the care givers and operators trained.
“Henceforth, care giving is going to be a certified skilled area with
career progression up to HND for who ever choses the line.
“It is a whole geriatric industry that is springing up for employment in the care giving industry,”she said.would stretch issues of older persons to be a development issue, not a small welfare issue.
“The consultative forums are our very necessary mechanisms because they are involved with us through programmes, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
“They are infact our independent monitors in all the states,” she said.
The DG appealed to the state governments to ensure inclusive development for equity and human rights of older persons not to be left behind.
“The only way to ensure inclusivity and universality in any social development is to create thier legal policy institutions which the Federal Government did in passing the NSCC bill into a law.
“So doing, if the states do the same, it will serve as a legal entity that will compel multi-sectoral development,” she said.
