II. Senior Officials Meeting and Global Conference on Ageing
In the morning of September 4th, IFA organized and held the Senior Officials Meeting under the theme of ¡°Ageing in Place¡±. Senior officials and ministers from Canada, Austria, Australia, Britain, United States, China, Japan, Denmark, Israel, etc., had presented the meeting.
Firstly, the president of IFA, Ms. Irene Hoskins gave an address for the meeting and she expressed her appreciation for all present delegates. She held the idea that population ageing was a common issue to the whole world, which would impact on each country¡¯s economy and society directly. Indubitably, this Senior Officials Meeting could provide a platform for the participators to communicate and share experiences and practices on ageing-in-place program, in order to discuss existing problems, identify the right direction, and drive the further development of ageing-in -place program together.
Ms. Susan Scotti, the assistant deputy director of Canadian Human Resource and Social Development Ministry, introduced that the population ageing in Canada had been deteriorated in the beginning of the 21st century, and the proportion of senior citizen (over 65) had been increasingly grown continuously. In the year 2001, the proportion of senior citizen accounted for 1/8 of the whole population, while the same rate was estimated to be over 1/5 in the year 2026. Meantime, there would be one senior citizen over the age of 65 in every 5 people. Population ageing needed the efforts of the whole nation, including to enhance the healthy level, welfares and independent ability for the aged in their late years; to encourage and support the elderly to continue the participation for the economic and social lives; to intensify and improve the environment for those elderly who choose ageing in place; and to take sustaining government actions to benefit people of all ages as well as the old people. In order to tackle the challenges of population ageing, a series of actions and programs that were jointly adopted by Canadian Federation and local governments had been taken place, including support program for low income seniors, housing support program, financial subsidy for house caretaker, elderly health promotion program and so on. All of these would help seniors to realize ageing in place, and encourage family members to provide care services for the elderly. According to the introduction, as much as over 1 billion Canada dollars was used for revenue support and decrease for services for ageing-in-place in the year 2006 alone.
Dr. Erika Winkler, the vice director of Ageing Policy Division of Ministry of Social Affairs and Consumer Rights Protection of Austria, gave an emphasized introduction on long-term care insurance in Austria. 80% of senior citizens of Austria could be independent for ageing in place, and only a few simple services were needed from the community. While some 18% elderly needed long-term care: 10% of them needed level 1-2 loose care, which took 120 hours each month; and 8% of them needed longer time and more attended care. One particular point was that, among the needed senior citizens, over 80% of them stayed at home and were cared by their families instead of turning to the specific service institution. Therefore, the Austrian government made a particular policy for supporting the family members who taking care of the elderly, e.g. (1) if the family caregiver cannot provide temporary care caused by illness, vacation or other reasons, the long-term care insurance would provide the subsidy for the cost of substitute care services in the market. (2) For the family members who take care of the last elderly, their employer should give a vacation for no longer than 3 months.
Ms. Mary Murnane, the vice secretary of Health and Ageing Department of Australia, introduced the situation of ageing in place in Australia. She gave various models of ageing-in-place programs and aging-in-institution programs. And she pointed out the advantages and disadvantages for both models, i.e. ageing-in-place covered more aged people and it cost much less than the institution. She thought the emphasis of next step for the ageing-in-place process lied in further understanding the need and demand from the elderly; supporting the informal caregivers; providing more suitable housing and community environment for ageing-in-place program; the new measurement for ageing-in-institution model; and the more effective shift mechanism between ageing-in-place and ageing-in-institution.
Mr. Wu Yushao represented China to give the presentation under the subject of Practices and Experiences of Ageing-in-place in China. He expressed the necessity and importance of China¡¯s ageing-in-place program to the rest of delegates; introduced the practice and experience of ageing in place in China and the relevant existing problems. At the same time, he also gave emphasis on the functions and roles of both government and non-government organizations in ageing-in-place program. The delegates had praised China¡¯s achievement on ageing-in-place issues. Since there were over 150 million elderly people in China, which was even more than the whole population of some nations, it needed much greater efforts to solve the ageing service problem, and China had done great contributions for the world. Later, delegates from the United States, Britain, Vietnam, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Japan etc. also gave introductions on their ageing-in-place situation and government actions. After the presentation and discussion, the Senior Officials Meeting was closed in the afternoon.
The Global Conference opened on the afternoon of September 4th. The conference had have invited an ordinary senior citizen to make a thematic presentation, which aroused the interest of attending delegates. Otherwise, the officials taking charge of ageing affairs, and officials of Quebec and Montreal came to the meeting and gave addresses respectively. The Global Conference was full scheduled with 5 plenums, 8 group meetings, and nearly 100 of presentations within the 4-day-long conference. The presentation subjects included ageing in place, age-friendly community, long-term care insurance, living environment for the aged, elderly income, generation equality, elderly endowment, last care, innovation and design, elderly abuse, elderly participation, public policies for the aged, and so on.
During the Global Conference, a product exhibition for the aged was also organized by the conference hosts. Over 30 companies had participated in the exhibition, and the exhibiting products included products for the aged, housing for the aged, elderly food and costumes, publication and research for the elderly. Some of the showcases even invited elderly people to introduce the products in person.
In the session of the conference, Mr. Wu Yushao had met and talked to the secretary-general Ms. Jane. Wu introduced the situation of China¡¯s ageing development of recent years. And then they exchanged ideas on intensifying the further cooperation with each other.
