The Department of Social Development urges elderly care as it is essential for elderly people as this will promote good health.

This was said by the Director of Elderly Care Services, Mrs. ‘Mateboho Marite during a one-day workshop on elderly care services for media houses in Maseru on Wednesday.

Mrs. Marite said their aim is to work together with the media to protect the rights of elderly people and fight the harassment they face when they receive their pensions.

Mrs. Marite said it is through this kind of workshop that they share knowledge that contributes to elderly care services.

She further noted that the purpose of this workshop was to sanitise media houses about elderly care services as well as focus on the welfare and protecting the rights of elderly people.

Also speaking, the Manager of Elder Services, Mrs. ‘Matisetso Moshengu, said the workshop comes after they have introduced Programs of Advocacy and Awareness, Education and sensitisation of the communities about the responsibilities to protect elders, saying this program is about supporting and strengthening institutional care provided by care facilities.

Mrs. Moshengu said the Recreational and Healthy Ageing Program promotes active and healthy ageing for older persons. They are encouraged to establish elderly social clubs where they will be sanitised about ageing sicknesses like Dementia.

She said it is important to know the stages and signs of dementia as this will help them and their care providers understand how to deal with this sickness and protect them from any harm.

She further explained that dementia is an elderly sickness that does not heal but has stages that medications can control.

Moreover, Mrs. Moshengu mentioned that there are two types of dementia namely: Alzheimer’s and alcohol-related dementia, saying Alzheimer’s dementia, is the state of blood and transmission in the brain that can be caused by many factors such as stress, depression and brain damage.

In conclusion, she stressed that there is a need to communicate dementia-related information on different platforms as this will help protect elderly people from brutal killings due to unfounded allegations.

The objective of the workshop was to train and engage media houses about elderly care services and how media houses should report events relating to elderly people as well as educate society.

By Staff Reporter: Noliwe Velaphe