Adapting Africa’s Health Systems to Manage Non-Communicable Diseases in Older Persons

ConvenorRobert Cumming, University of Sydney, Australia

DiscussantJohn Beard, WHO Geneva

PresentersThomas Clausen, University of Oslo, NorwayMelvyn Freeman, Department of Health, South AfricaJoseph Mugisha, MRC Entebbe, UgandaOusmane Faye, University CA Diop Dakar, Senegal

• Adapt health service delivery• Train health workers

– Knowledge and skills– Change attitudes (“ageism”)

• Health information systems• Medical products

– Medications and appliances• Financing

– Social pensions– Free health care

• Leadership

Attitudes of Health Workers

“Why are you wasting your grandchildren’s drugs? Better I give you paracetum and let you go back home.”

(Reported to have been said to an older person by a nursing assistant at a health centre in Uganda.)