THE NATION
A Professor of Social Work at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Uzoma Okoye, has called for the establishment of Adult daycare centres to provide the necessary care and attention needed by the elderly for a longer and healthier life.
Okoye, who made the call in Nsukka while delivering the university’s 195th inaugural lecture titled “Aging PLC: A business where everyone is a shareholder but not aware. Can Social Work Help?”, said there is a need to establish Adult Day Care just as Children Day Care to give old people the required care and attention they needed to live longer.
She said: “Some people may say Adult Day Care or Old People’s Homes are not part of our culture in this part of the world but we must adapt to the changing world realities.”
The lecturer, who is the first professor in the Social Work Department to present an inaugural lecture at the university, urged Nigerians to support aging businesses “since everybody is a shareholder.”
She said: “Ageing PLC is a limited liability company where every Nigeria and those yet unborn are shareholders but not aware.
“Unfortunately, this aging PLC is not a business where you have the option to be shareholders or not, as everybody is a shareholder.
“Why it’s imperative to support aging people is because whether you like it or not, you start aging right from the day you were born.
“Unlike other companies where board members are given the authority to run the company but in aging PLC, everyone is a board member.”
She said that findings from her PhD research work revealed that attitude, stigma, and assumptions about aging were heavily embedded within social cognition.
“It’s generally believed by Nigerians that age comes with inevitable physical and cognitive decay.
“With this attitude toward the aged, some consider themselves a social burden and have a strong sense of waiting for death.
“We should all put smiles on the faces of old people as a way of giving them a sense of belonging as well as enabling them to live longer,” she said.
The professor of Social Work tasked her department to take the responsibility of sensitising and educating Nigerians on the need to use adult daycare for older people to enable them to live longer for their families and society.
He said: “Students in the Social Work department should take this as part of their responsibility in their service to humanity.”
Okoye expressed special appreciation to her husband for his love, care, and maximum support for her at all times.
She said: “My husband is the best husband in the world, if there is reincarnation I will marry him in my next world.”
