January 29, 2017
Caring for the elderly can present several challenges – oftentimes individuals require assistance with mobility, healthcare and household tasks. In Ghana, such care has been historically divided between family members.
However, in an increasingly urbanized Ghana, this system is fading away as working people have less free time to provide care to their families. This poses several challenges for caregiving, which Ashesi alumna, Wendy Dzidzor Akinny ‘16 has been researching. At the 2017 annual meeting of the American Economics Association in Chicago, she presented her research findings on elderly care in Ghana.
Increasingly, due to rural-urban migration, elderly people who require assisted-living are left helpless
“For most people, taking their parents to an old people’s home is essentially neglecting them,” she explained. “They feel they owe it to their parents to give back the care they received from them, in person. So people would rather want to do everything themselves, than trust their elderly into the care of a stranger.”
Many families in Ghana try to manage care for their aging loved ones at home, yet are unable to provide adequate support. In her research, Wendy interviewed people with aging parents, the elderly and visited several senior living facilities in Ghana
“Running a facility properly for elderly caregiving goes beyond basic healthcare,” she went on to explain. “We need trained care givers for old people, facilities have to be old people-friendly and provide opportunity for recreation. All of these need to be factored in. These facilities have to be able to earn the trust of people and most importantly be affordable.”
Her paper, Investigating the Desirability of the ‘Old People’s Home’ as a Viable Business in Ghana, provides important outlines on senior living facilities in Ghana and proposes options to elderly care-giving in the absence of the former.
Wendy (middle) and supervisor Dr. Stephen Armah (right), at AEA conference
“Presently, Ghana is not yet ready for old people’s homes, economically or culturally,” she said. “Nevertheless, they are useful, and people may need help embracing the concept. Exploring the options of a day-care system will be a good start. This will allow people to share the responsibility of adequate caregiving for their elderly with experienced people, while they have them close-by when they are at home. Eventually, old people’s homes will become more of a necessity than a luxury or choice so we need education on the benefits of old people’s home and set up institutions to provide the needed care for the elderly.”
The American Economics Association, in conjunction with 56 associations in related disciplines known as the Allied Social Sciences Associations (ASSA), holds a three-day meeting each January to present papers on general economics topics. Over 13, 000 people gather at the conference to share research findings, network and learn from one another.
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