(From third left) Fatimah, Vytialinggam, Uggah, Dr Sim and others at the opening ceremony. — Photo by Mohd Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Sharing of ways to deal with aging will enable the stakeholders to inspire good solutions and encourage each other to achieve better outcomes in healthy aging.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg thus commended the organiser for hosting the 1st Asean Conference on Healthy Ageing here, saying the conference marked a great new beginning in bringing together like-minded people who are concerned and passionate about the well-being of the communities as they move deeper into a new century of challenges and opportunities.
He believed one of solutions to deal with the expected increase in healthcare burden of aging and aged nations was to address how well the communities were doing to foster healthy aging in the population.
Abang Johari noted that Asean nations had so far done fairly well in tackling the tragedies of maternal and early childhood deaths during the past few decades of the last century.
Government ministries of health in Asean nations, he said, had done a good job bringing the benefits of modern medicine to distant and remote hamlets and villages in our part of the world.
“However, as our societies have become more modern, we also have seen the rise of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, strokes and cancer.
“Though we are living longer, we are not necessarily seeing people living healthier lives,” he said at the opening of the conference yesterday.
The text of his speech was read by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
Abang Johari also expected the conference to address the issue of living healthily from the biological aspects without leaving out the emotional, mental, spiritual and social aspects of aging.
He said people could potentially become healthier if they practised healthy lifestyles and maintained good follow-up for their chronic medical problems.
“It is hoped that this conference will be a starting point for us to address how we can individually age healthily, encourage our own family members to live healthily and on a broader spectrum, change our communities and governments so that healthy aging becomes an objective to achieve nationally and internationally.
“Many countries are becoming aged or aging nations. In Malaysia, we expect that we will be an aged nation by 2030, whereby we will have at least 15 per cent of the population above 60,” he said.
He believed the rate of change among Asian countries was especially high compared to other regions of the world like the West.
“We recognise the danger of not being ready to face the challenges that are coming to our aging nation’s challenges such as socio-economic burdens from increasing healthcare needs and the support of these older generations as they become financially dependent on others.
“Modern medicine has allowed us to live longer but is this really a gift if we are sick or unable to live an independent and happy life for most of it?
“How do we live longer and healthier lives? This is why we are here today, to confront the challenges and explore the opportunities this new era brings,” he said.
Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, and organising chairman Professor Nathan Vytialinggam were among those present at the function.