Senior citizens centres face closure

Typically, the elderly woman would have mastered her technique in piecing together the chain links for the necklace she began creating three weeks ago.

But on that day, Cynthia wore a glum look as she pondered the future of the jewellery class and by extension, the senior citizens activity centre.

She said her visits to the centre now seems uncertain following news that the facility may be closed down if monies are not disbursed from the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, through the Division of Ageing, to keep it afloat.

“Is a very good thing we have going on here but we cannot get any money.

So, things slowing down,” Cynthia complained during a Sunday Newsday visit to the centre.

Saying she had no regrets about being at the centre, Cynthia said it would be a pity if the institution had to close.

Sources told Sunday Newsday that other senior citizens activity centres are facing a similar fate.

In fact, the Chaguanas centre has already closed its doors and others, in south and east Trinidad, are also on the verge of calling it a day.

“Everybody has their problems but in different ways,” one source said.

The source said for the past six months, the 11 centres operating throughout the country have not received their government subventions, which covers staff payments, overhead costs and incidentals.

The subventions, which are usually paid every three months, amount to just over $90,000.

“But we have not been getting anything for the past six months,” she said.

The development, she said, has resulted in many of the centres having to cut back on their programmes.

Even more unsettling, she said, is the reality that the centres, which have been a virtual lifeline for many elderly folk, could be discontinued altogether.

“We are just there trying to survive and we don’t know when we are going to get the subvention,” she said.

Another source, who is affiliated to a centre in north Trinidad, said many of the senior citizen activity centres were managed by non-governmental organisations and churches “and so many of us cannot afford to pay our workers the stipend they usually get.” “Most of us have to pay rent. So, we would like to know what is going on,” she said.

The source said her centre had called the office of Minister of Social Development and Family Services Cherrie-Ann Crichlow- Cockburn last week to no avail.

“A young lady there said she cannot say what is happening and we have also written to the minister inviting her to visit the centre. We have not gotten a reply or seen anybody yet,” she said.

“But we have the intention to rewrite the letters again and even writing the prime minister (Dr Keith Rowley) to find out what is happening with us.” The source claimed that they began experiencing problems last year after a meeting was convened for coordinators in the 11 senior activity centres.

“That meeting was to update us about the running of the centres and to provide a feedback on what we have been doing,” she said, adding that reports are usually submitted on a quarterly basis.

Referring specifically to the problems at her centre, the source said funds were depleting rapidly.

“This month, I know I will not be able to pay the stipend to my workers.

We have even decided to open just three days a week instead of the usual five days,” she said.

She said the senior citizens attending her centre were extremely disillusioned about the situation.

“We have past schools principals, teachers and permanent secretaries who have come here in a depressed mode, some with Alzheimer’s Disease and if you see how they laughing,” she said.

“You would not believed the kind of changes we see in these people. For Carnival, they put out their money and went to several calypso tents. They really enjoyed it.” She said most of the activity centres offer aqua therapy, yoga, jewellery design, arm chair exercise, card making and painting.

“So, it is not a matter for the centre to close.

“They just need to be upgraded,” she said.

“The people would be very depressed if they were to learn that the centres are being closed down.” If that were the case, she said many of the seniors would most likely be placed in elderly homes “which are not conducive to being up and around and alive.” A senior citizen, who spoke to Sunday Newsday at the centre in north Trinidad, said the effects of the non-payment of the disbursement, were being felt at the facility.

“Things not going too good these days,” said the woman, who, for the past several months, has been learning to use the computer.

“The staff is out of touch because we cannot get our courses done.

“The teachers are not getting paid and we are accustomed to the courses because it is an activity centre.

“The people don’t just come here and sit down and lull. There are people that take computer courses, swimming, painting, all the other courses but the teachers are not coming because they are not getting paid.” Crichlow-Cockburn and Dr Jennifer Rouse, director of the Division of Ageing, could not be reached for comment.