Dementia centre in the pipeline for Gozo

The government is planning a dementia centre in Gozo along with the development of a day centre at Villa San Lawrenz, an active ageing centre and a night shelter for the elderly.

Speaking in parliament, parliamentary secretary for the elderly Justyne Caruana reacted to criticism levelled today by the Opposition against government’s handling of the elderly sector.

Caruana said the government had tripled the amount of respite beds while a tender for the meals on wheels had been issued.

Commenting that the PN spokespersons “clearly were not aware of what the Nationalist government had left behind”, Caruana said St Vincent de Paul Residence was being changed to a high dependency facility as stated when the facility rebranding was announced.

“The residence had never seen so much renovation works as it is today. In the past, an average of one ward used to be refurbished per legislature. On the other hand, this government opened two wards in less than a year.”

Caruana said that the government has started offering couple rooms for elderly at SVPR, although such couple wards were very limited.

A new ward has been pinpointed for refurbishment, bringing the total of five wards.

Under the previous administration, SJ4 was developed with a deficit of sanity facilities expecting two bathrooms to cater for 44 residents.

The junior minister said that all precautions were undertaken to ensure the safety of elderly residents while refurbishment works were underway. She said that all wards had dining areas and older persons were allowed to eat wherever they felt like.