How FBB has been working for the Community and for the elderly cause in 2019

Dear Community members,

Our Conviviality Centre for the Elderly reopened first week in February and is already going at full blast!

By March we had 42 elderly people enrolled in the activities programmed for 2019 and, each day, we’ve been receiving and increasing the number of beneficiaries. Many of these people are part of our community and it’s wonderful to offer them a new project that contributes towards the process of healthy ageing and also strengthen our community ties.

Each day we have an average of 15 people present, but some of the activities have as many as 24 participants, which is our new record! Here are some photos of these first few weeks – and of our Carnival party! – to enliven your month:

The other projects have not been interrupted and continue in operation in consistence with the demands of our beneficiaries. In February and March, FBB’s staff made 105 carer-escorts available in the Care Programme and 7 in the Extended Programme where we continue assisting the Casa Madre Teodora dos Idosos with financial, material and human resources. Besides that, we keep taking care of our own: 44 home visits were made to the elderly people of our community in order to check their situation and provide any assistance needed.

We do all this because we are aware of the importance of caring for the elderly, and ever more so as the population begins to age at an accelerated pace, as is the case in Brazil. Although this is not being adequately discussed in the country, every now and then some interesting initiatives appear in the media.

In February CBN took its turn discussing this issue launching a cool series called Brazil-Senior. In its first article they highlighted the fact that in 2060 Brazil will have 73 million elderly people, representing 32% of our population. Today we have 29 million, which is equivalent to 13% of all Brazilians. One of the specialists interviewed regarding this issue brought forth an interesting reflection, which is already a guideline in our work at Fundação Britânica de Beneficência:

"There is a tendency that a large number of sick individuals will be in need of a more complex type of attention, of more complex health care assistance. If we don’t change the model we will not be able to change our ideas about adopting a more preventive kind assistance, and we might have to face high rates of illnesses in a more vulnerable population at this time."

Renato Bandeira de Mello - Scientific Director of Sociedade Brasileira de Geriatria e Gerontologia

Besides this reflection on the aging of our population, this series also dealt with other themes. It’s worth visiting CBN’s website to read about pensions, examples from countries that are already older, researches about aging and much more.

We hope that our work will help in improving this scenario for the Third Age in Brazil and make you, a member of our community and reader of Spotlight, reflect about your own aging process and about the situation of the elderly in our country.

If you like our work or wants to know more about it and how to contribute in this process, send us a message at contact@britishsociety.org.br.