Message from Premier & Minister of Community Affairs

Hon. Alden McLaughlin, MBE, JP

International Day of Older Persons 1st October 2013

Today (Tues), 1st October 2013, the Cayman Islands celebrates the Day of Older Persons, along with the rest of the world.

At the start of this century, the Caribbean population of older persons (those 60 years and over) was larger than ever before in the history of this region. Life expectancy rose from an average of 50 years in the late 1940’s to an average of 70 years for men and 73 years for women, in most of the English speaking Caribbean.

Thanks to investment in health and social programmes, people simply live better, longer, more self-sufficient lives. Increasingly, seniors are financially independent, keeping up their homes and working way beyond the traditional retirement age.

Even as we celebrate these achievements, we need to keep our eyes on the next test, namely opportunities that ensure our growing elderly population stay vibrant. Equally important, seniors and their experience and skills present a wealth of opportunity for society. We can tap into this resource by creating activities for our older people, so they can remain in the mainstream longer.

Without their contributions, we would lose our connection to our heritage, our culture and our sense of who we are. In line with this, the theme for our local observance is Listening to Our Older Persons. This is intended to draw attention to the efforts of older persons and contributions they have made and continue to make in our community.

Why should we spend time listening to  our elders advice? Listening to them has promoted well-being and even survival. The accumulated wisdom of older people – our “experts” on living – can serve as a helpful guide, especially for younger people. Sharing stories about world wars to natural home remedies, they bring experiential knowledge of just about every problem. We just have to ask.

While we have our eyes set on creating new opportunities for our elders, we cannot lose sight of the challenges some of them are facing. No matter how big or small, attention to their needs and challenges is clearly required. Similarly, if no adequate opportunities are in place, our older men and women will continue to find it difficult to contribute to the functioning of society, and in turn, unable to aid in the development of our country. So on this International Day of Older Persons, listen to our elderly and let us turn these challenges into opportunities.