No fewer than 21 medical personnel from 21 tertiary healthcare centres have received special training on geriatric social care for senior citizens in the country.
The Director-General of, the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) Dr Emem Omokaro, disclosed this at a dinner to mark the end of the training in Abuja on Wednesday.
Omokaro said the 10-day in-class training was for the first set of training providers, who would in turn impact the knowledge of others in their healthcare facilities.
Omokaro said the NSCC had developed a standard national policy on ageing that would strengthen the decision-making process and achieve sustainable growth in the geriatric social care sector in the country.
“I believe this is going to be sustainable in the sense that, no political circle can blow it away. That is why when we have policy on ageing, we took time to develop our national plan of action.
”If you see that document, you will agree with me that for the next ten years, any serious Director-General will have a policy that has already been designed to implement,” she said.
The trainees included Geriatricians, Consultant Family Physicians, Nurses from Federal and State University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres and the Private Sector.
Some of the Institutions that benefited from the program included the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre Yola, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Mallam Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital among others.
The participants, trained in specialised areas of social care for older persons, are expected to create a geriatric unit in their respective hospitals to handle cases associated with an ageing population.
A participant and Head of the Geriatric Unit, Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Dr Kumbet Sunny, said the training provided him the opportunity to understand a new area of specialisation with a specific focus on the ageing population.
”This is a new dawn in my career as medical practitioner because it has widen my experience on how to handle aged people and the need to provide social care for them aside medical care” he said.
Another participant from the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, Dr Funke Olukoya, expressed gratitude to the National Senior Citizens Centre(NSCC) and the National Board for Technical Education(NBTE) for introducing a new dimension to their profession.
Olukoya said the training equipped her with the knowledge and expertise to impact meaningfully in the lives of older persons.
Also speaking, a geriatrician from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi, Dr Haruna Mohammed, said being one of the participants from the North-East, he would ensure that the knowledge he acquired impacts the lives of many in the region.
Earlier, the Director-General of, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Prof. Idris Bugaje, expressed the commitment of the board to foster collaboration with NSCC towards providing technical support that will promote healthy ageing in the country.
Bugaje, represented by Mr Suleiman Yusuf, Director, Vocational, Technical Skills Development in NBTE said, NSCC “remains a worthy partner in advancing the course of senior citizens in Nigeria.”
NAN
