Community Centre for the Elderly renamed ‘Family Gathering Centre.'

• HE Al Maidoor: name signifies importance of family culture in the UAE.
• Centre to undergo expansion plans. Several initiatives in pipeline to rope in families to interact with geriatric      patients and vice-versa.
• Mobile clinics for Geriatric Home Visiting team in the pipeline.
• More elderly centres to be built across different geographical areas of Dubai.

United Arab Emirates, Dubai, October 1, 2013: The Dubai Health Authority's (DHAs) Community Centre for the Elderly in Al Mamzar, which is the sole centre for the elderly in the emirate, has been renamed the ‘Family Gathering Centre' as per the directives of His Excellency Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority.

The renaming is part of the overall facelift for the  existing centre and the expansion has been undertaken keeping two concepts in mind- interaction with the community and integrated healthcare services for geriatric patients.

Al Maidoor said: “ The expansion plan for the elderly centre is part of the Dubai Health Strategy 2013-2025 that has been approved by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , UAE Vice President , Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The plan for the Family Gathering Centre includes taking care of all aspects of our geriatric patients and providing them with world-class health, social and physiological support. Integration with members of society and excellence in health services have been central themes in planning the expansion.”

He elaborated: “To facilitate regular interaction with the members of the elderly centre and the community, the expansion project will include a heritage market with coffee shops and traditional fanfare activities and a mosque. The mosque will have a capacity for 150 worshippers. The heritage market will bring back memories of life in the old days in the UAE and the elderly population will also get an opportunity to interact with the community. Youngsters who come to visit the elderly members in their family will be ample landscaped areas and green lawns.”

He added that HH Sheikh Mohammed has always paid significant emphasis towards the care of the elderly population and during his earlier inspection of the centre HH had emphasized that the elderly are the fathers and grandfathers who lived and grew up in this land, patiently offering their lives to build this modern nation.

He said that appreciation, respect and caring for the elderly is an important part of UAE culture and that we owe a great deal to our elderly population.

Al Maidoor added that the state-of-the-art expansion will cater to all the needs of the elderly at the centre.

Overall plans to enhance geriatric care in the Emirate

Al Maidoor said that the authority is working on developing several initiatives which will help enhance geriatric care in the Emirate. “ Instead of expecting the elderly patients to step out of their homes and come to clinics for treatment, the aim is to build a strong network of mobile geriatric clinics, so that our team of geriatricians can visit patients in the comfort of their homes and provide them with medical, physiotherapy and rehabilitation services.”

“In addition to this, we plan to build more Family Gathering Centres in other areas of Dubai so that the elderly have easy access to these centres that not only provide excellent geriatric services but also have several community driven initiatives for the elderly.

He said the current expansion plan for the Family Gathering centre will cost AED 5 million and the project will be completed before end of next year.

He also said that the geriatric care will be evaluated on a yearly basis and initiatives such as the mobile clinic will be added on to ensure geriatric services are continuously enhanced. “ Our aim is to prolong the problems of ageing and this is possible through early intervention and treatment for the elderly.”

Dr Hamad Al Shebani, Director-General of the Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities said that the move will significantly enhance care provided to the elderly patients and that interaction with the community is an important aspect that the expansion projects and future plans will address.

Dr Ahmad bin Kalban, CEO of Primary Healthcare at the DHA said that enhancing geriatric care is essential given that in future the percentage of elderly population will be on the rise.

He said that presently  the Family Gathering centre has 30 in-patients and 50 out-patients. He said the centre introduced a day-care outpatient program to cater to the needs of geriatric patients who do not need require round-the-clock care.

“The centre provides a host of services for geriatric patients including physiotherapy, memory training, cognitive therapy, medication to treat co-morbidities, rehabilitation, physiological counselling and all forms of geriatric care to ensure the elderly are well taken care of. The centre also has a snozelen room, which is the first-of-its-kind in the Middle-East region for treating elderly patients.”

Kalban said: “ In terms of treatment, the centre is equipped with all facilities. We recently introduced the H-Scan machine which is a state-of-the-art computer based system that tabulates the functional age of the person. The machine is easy to use and within 45 minutes provides details of 12 benchmarks of ageing which are based on four parameters: cognitive, sensory, motor skills and pulmonary function.”

He said the centre is presently creating awareness about healthy ageing and is encouraging people in their late 40s to early 50s to visit the centre and get their functional age tested.

Those interested to volunteer their services, can call the centre at 04-5022810.