The Directorate of Health Information and Research, are presently conducting a survey on the Elderly Needs and Care, Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said today during a visit to the department.

He commented that the sample involves more than 9000 respondents and that population projections show that the 0-59 years old population is likely to start declining whilst the above 60 age group is expected to rise fairly sharply over the next 10 years, as the children born after the post-war baby boom reach pensionable age. Population of 65+ is set to increase to 111,700 in 2060 (increase of 72% compared to 2010).

“Ageing of our society brings with it further demands for services and burden on family and friends to manage the challenges brought by an ageing population. The aim of the survey is to assess the extent and the type of needs that Maltese elderly face on a day-to-day basis. Presently, the Government is offering several services to the elderly. These include telecare, meals on wheels, home help, handy man service, respite beds, night shelters among others.”

Mario Galea explained that this survey is being organised in three phases – a short screener questionnaire which is being conducted over the phone with a representative sample of 9400 elderly Maltese residents above the age of 75. This questionnaire will be supplying the Directorate with basic information as to the types of limitations, if any, that the elderly face, together with other issues such as loneliness.

Persons found to be suffering from substantial limitations will be invited again for the second phase of the survey which will explore these limitations in depth to assess the extent of the problems being faced. Such information will then feed into the policy making process in order to better shape existing and future services based in the community and elsewhere to the current needs of the elderly.

The Minister explained that respondents who result in having access to an informal carer would also be encouraged to nominate their carer who would be invited for the third stage of the survey. In this final phase, the needs of informal carers shall be looked into to identify the needs of creating services to support these individuals who are investing their time and energy in the care of the elderly in the community.

The whole survey is modeled on the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) conducted in the United States by the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) in collaboration with Duke University. Qualitative research is being carried out in parallel in order to make sure that the questionnaire used in Malta is able to capture the needs of the Maltese elderly population.

Mario Galea appealed to the elderly to participate in the survey since this will help the government to shape its future policies for this sector.

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