1 comment.New course for certificate of care assistant
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Following the success achieved last year when 49 participants attended and completed a course leading to a certificate of Care Assistant, the Parliamentary Secretariat for the Elderly and Community Care is once again giving the opportunity to individuals who are interested in working with the elderly to be trained in this field.
It is a known fact that Malta has an ageing population so much so it is estimated that by 2015 the number of persons over the age of 65 will reach 77,000. People are indeed living longer thanks to the advancement in medicine and to our health care services. This situation calls for a higher demand of professionals qualified in this sector with the real challenge being adequate staff that can look after the elderly.
With this in mind, the Department for the Elderly and Community Care, in collaboration with St Vincent De Paul Residence, is organising another specialized course for Care Assistants. Applications may be sent either by post or delivered by hand to the Accounts Section, Department for the Elderly and Community Care, Centru Hidma Socjali, St Joseph High Road, St Venera. The closing date of the applications is Wednesday 25th February 2009. Interested applicants, who must be over sixteen years of age, are to provide a Police Conduct Certificate and a School Leaving Certificate. The course, which runs over a period of four months, is scheduled to start on Monday, the 23rd of March 2009 and includes both theory and practice in care services.
On completion of the course a Certificate will be presented to each candidate making them eligible to work as Care Assistant in any of the local Homes for the Elderly.
If the figures supplied by The Parliamentary Secretariat for the Elderly and Community Care, are re-calculated for Gozo only, it would mean there will be over 7,000 people over 65 in Gozo by 2015.
The minister accepts by his figures, that there will be over 5,000 people in residential care homes in Malta by 2015, 6.5% of the over 65’s. If this percentage is applied to Gozo it would mean over 500 Gozitans denied a place in a care home on Gozo.
More training of carers by the government is welcomed, but not all of the elderly can, for various reasons, be looked after at home, otherwise why are there so many homes in Malta?
The government needs to invest in care homes now, before the Gozo General Hospital breaks at the seams.
The minister stated that: “On completion of the course a Certificate will be presented to each candidate making them eligible to work as Care Assistant in any of the local Homes for the Elderly”
I would ask the minister: What care homes? There are none in Gozo.