Caring for the elderly can present several challenges – particularly when the old person requires help with mobility, company and adequate healthcare. In several countries, Old people’s homes have been designed to provide the care that the elderly require. In Ghana however, where the extended family system for a long time was dominant, care for the elderly was usually a shared responsibility of all the younger members of the family.
However, in an increasingly urbanized Ghana, not only is the extended family system gradually fading away, but also more and more people have less time to provide care to people outside their immediate family. Both phenomena pose several challenges for care-giving for the elderly. While old people’s homes may work in some part of the world, the country may not be ready to embrace the concept, according to Ashesi alumna, Wendy Dzidzor Akinny ‘16. At the 2017 annual meeting of the American Economics Association in Chicago, she presented her research findings on elderly care in Ghana.
Increasingly, due to rural-urban migration, elderly people who require assisted-living are left helpless
“For most people, taking their parents to an senior living facility is essentially neglecting them,” she explained. “They feel they owe it to their parents to give back the care they received from them, in person. So people would rather want to do everything themselves, than trust their elderly into the care of a stranger.”
In an attempt to provide care for their elderly some people house them in their homes, yet are unable to make the time or provide the adequate support required. In her research, Wendy interviewed people with ageing parents, the elderly and visited some of old people’s homes in Ghana
“Running a facility properly for elderly care-giving goes beyond basic healthcare,” she went on to explain. “We need trained care givers for old people, facilities have to be old people-friendly and provide opportunity for recreation. All of these need to be factored in. These facilities have to be able to earn the trust of people and most importantly be affordable.”
Based on her thesis project while at Ashesi, the paper, Investigating the Desirability of the ‘Old People’s Home’ as a Viable Business in Ghana provides important outlines on old people’s homes in Ghana and proposes options to elderly care-giving in the absence of the former.
Wendy (middle) and supervisor Dr. Stephen Armah (right), at AEA conference
“Presently, Ghana is not yet ready for old people’s homes, economically or culturally,” she said. “Nevertheless, they are useful, and people may need help embracing the concept. Exploring the options of a day-care system will be a good start. This will allow people to share the responsibility of adequate caregiving for their elderly with experienced people, while they have them close-by when they are at home. Eventually, old people’s homes will become more of a necessity than a luxury or choice so we need education on the benefits of old people’s home and set up institutions to provide the needed care for the elderly.”
The American Economics Association, in conjunction with 56 associations in related disciplines known as the Allied Social Sciences Associations (ASSA), holds a three-day meeting each January to present papers on general economics topics. Over 13, 000 people gather at the conference to share research findings, network and learn from one another.