Decade of Healthy Living

 The United Nations has declared 2021-2030 as the decade of Healthy Ageing. The UN recognizes health as central to the experience of ageing. The initiatives are to: “change how we think, feel and act towards age and ageing; facilitate the ability of older people to participate in and contribute to their communities and society; deliver integrated care and primary health services that are responsive to the needs of the individual, and provide access to long-term care for older people who need it.” See more information at https://www.who.int/news/item/14-12-2020-decade-of-healthy-ageing-a-new-un-wide-initiative  

There are some interesting messages that are shared by all the world leaders like the Secretary-General of the United Nations stress in their comments about where the world is after months of pandemic measures. regarding older adults:

1.  No person is expendable. Everybody should have the same rights, whether they are old or young.

2.  The prevalence of ageing in our society is much revealed by the world crisis. Have you heard anybody say, "They were in long-term care anyway, so they shouldn't get the same level of care as younger people"? We probably haven't heard that belief spoken right out loud, but it has been at work, nonetheless.

3.  We need to create the new normal. We must not return to the way things were. We should emerge from this strange world of masks and distancing with renewed expectations. When this is all over will there be a new recognition of the human rights of everyone? This will take vigilance and effort.

In an ideal world, perhaps the minority of care homeowners who put greed and profits ahead of their responsibilities to provide for their residents in appropriate ways will reform themselves. Well, we do not live in an ideal world so it is up to governments to ignore the lobbyists and adopt standards based on health science.