Chapter 4 : Ageing

Abstract

Malta boasts a strong policy background in ageing welfare. In 1987, after 16 years of consecutive Labour Governments, the Nationalist Government created the post of Parliamentary Secretary for the Care of the Elderly to serve as a political catalyst and concentrate on a spectrum of needed services for older persons (Formosa, 2013). As the first Parliamentary Secretary underlined, the "Secretariat with the specific responsibility for the Elderly was not just a new concept for Malta, but a new concept world-wide" (maltatoday, 2002, as cited in Formosa, 2015, p. 21 0). Following the appointment of the first consultant geriatrician within the public health service, this Secretariat improved the available services for older persons by implementing such services as meals-on-wheels, Telecare, Kartanzjan, incontinence service, community centres, handyman service, social work unit, and a rehabilitation service. Not only did the government succeed in strengthening and improving the available services for older persons, but also managed to elevate interests and needs of older persons to higher levels of visibility and national importance. Another fe2ther in the Parliamentary Secretariat's cap was in preventing unnecessary hospitalisation as well as aiding an increasing number of older persons to continue living in the community rather than seek entry to residential or nursing care at the first hurdle. The establishment of Zammit Clapp Rehabilitation Hospital was instrumental in serving as a bridge between acute hospital settings and community living, as well as providing frail elders who experienced a sudden health crisis the necessary time for physical and social rehabilitation (Fiorini, 2015).