Special care system supported by communities and local bodies needed to help elderly: Thomas Isaac

Former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac with former Kerala High Court judge V.K. Mohanan at the Dr. Chandni Mohan remembrance meeting at the Ernakulam Public Library on Tuesday. Dr. Chandni was Mr. Mohanan’s daughter.
| Photo Credit: R.K. Nithin

Former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said that Kerala required a new model to ensure the care of the elderly by the family and supported by the community and the government.

The elderly need to be taken care of like how parents and the systems under the State had offered care to children. While the care for children happened like an automatic process, the care for the elderly, especially the bed-ridden, required a special support system, he said at a talk on the ‘Role of health sector in creating a modern Kerala’ held as part of the meet organised on Tuesday in memory of Dr. Chandni Mohan, daughter of former Kerala High Court judge V.K. Mohanan. She had succumbed to cancer on October 8, 2022.

He said such a system required adequate number of caregivers and institutional protection. The model needed the support of local communities and civic bodies to become a success, he said.

Dr. T.S. Anish, Professor of Community Medicine at the Government Medical College, Manjeri, said public health had helped in creating a modern Kerala, and the reforms initiated in the State had resulted in an improvement in the quality of the public health sector.

Dr. Anish said it would be difficult to emulate the Kerala model in health sector in other States. “Certain sections of the achievements made in the State’s health sector can be implemented in other places. But it cannot be replicated in full as the model had been created through many layers of social and political initiatives,” he added.

He said the infant mortality rate in Kerala was around four deaths (before the age of one) per 1,000 live births as per the National Family Health Survey. This itself could be an ideal indicator to estimate the quality of the State’s health sector as the rate was higher in other States. The lower infant mortality rate was achieved due to timely interventions, he said.