AGING IN COSTA RICA.
In recent days, a series of reports have been broadcast in various media on how Costa Rica, in about 30 or 40 years will be a country of "old". The low birth rates and the increase in life expectancy will mean that in the future there will be many challenges in caring for this population. However, we don't have to wait that long, now we see how there is a whole problem in the system of care for the elderly, not only at the level of physical health but also mental and emotional health. The elderly, especially those with communication disorders, are invisible in many homes where they are disqualified with expressions such as: "he doesn't understand", "he is lost", "he lives in his world" or "he is very old".
It is necessary that all people working in the area of health have as a priority to make families aware of the rights of the elderly in order to ensure a significant improvement in their quality of life. Older people need to know that their bodies are fine, that they have access to medicines and health facilities, but they also need to be listened to, taken into account in personal and family decisions, they need to be motivated to express their frustrations, concerns and joys, and they need to have at their disposal a series of tools to help them improve those areas of greater commitment and preserve the skills they still have.
Speech therapy has been erroneously conceived as a discipline aimed exclusively at the child population, but it also offers a large number of benefits for the elderly: it improves their self-esteem, reduces depressive episodes, reinforces and rehabilitates cognitive processes and at the same time entertains them, taking them out of that passivity that is so dangerous for them.
If you have an older adult in your home, take into account that your integrity as a human being is in your hands.
Lic Rocío Vargas Moya
Language Therapist.