South Africans in need of health and social services

Lusanda Bill
27 September 2010

Researchers today released a study stating that South Africans are in need of health and social services to provide effective care for people older than 50.

The study is entitled Growing older in Africa and Asia: Multicentre study on ageing, health and well-being. In the study it states that older woman are under increasing pressure to take over as the bread winners of their homes.

Professor Kathleen Kahn from Wits University said "In this new reality, older women face additional responsibilities such as nursing their sick adult children and taking care of their grandchildren. In many households, older people have also become the main bread winners through their social pension, which is sometimes the family's only source of income."

She added saying "The high HIV prevalence, together with an ageing population and the emerging epidemic of non-communicable diseases, will put immense pressure on already weak health services as well as on society as a whole, with important changes in household structure and in the roles and responsibilities of older people".