Welcome to the United Nations
The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care was honored to convene a side event at the 11th UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing with experts Dr. Farzana Khan, Ms. Harmala Gupta, Dott Simone Cernesi, Dr Zipporah Ali, and Mr. Marvin Mutch. These panelists, joining from Dhakka, Delhi, Modena, Nairobi, and San Diego respectively, addressed participants around the world who wanted to learn more about the palliative care needs of older persons during the pandemic. Dr. Khan talked about training residents at the Cox’s Bazaar Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh to provide palliative care for their neighbors in need; Ms. Gupta discussed how CanSupport attended to the needs of older persons with cancer during the pandemic in Delhi; Dr. Cernesi presented the situation of older adults in nursing homes during the pandemic in one of the hardest hit areas of Italy; Dr. Ali discussed providing palliative care to older persons in the community in Kenya, and Mr. Mutch spoke about how COVID created suffering and death of incarcerated elders at San Quentin State Prison in California.
There is so much to do to ensure that all people everywhere receive the palliative care they need at a price they can afford. This side event just scratched the surface of what is being done around the world for older persons, and what needs to be done. UN member states are not stepping up to the plate as quickly as we would like them to. The international system seems to be on emotional and cognitive lockdown. Few mission representatives attended the interactive sessions of the Working Group, even though they were virtual, or participated beyond reading statements from capital on the first day. We know that many government officials are very busy, they have only small missions, and have to prioritise topics in a full agenda. They say they want to give attention to the issue of older persons but can’t. That’s one reason, but as many speakers this past week at the OEWGA11 said, the main reason is ageism, the poison that has infected modern society along with the many other isms on the table right now. It is both universal and tribal. Harmala said that “at least the pandemic didn’t cover our ears,” but she meant ordinary peoples’ ears. The world’s ears are covered though – the member states ears are covered, and we will have to take the lead.
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