Elder abuse, health, loneliness, transport, and isolation, are the main issues elders in New Zealand’s South Asian community face, according to consultations initiated by Shanti Niwas, an organisation providing aged care support services, in and around Auckland.

“Additionally, as mentioned by Maggie Barry – National MP and spokesperson of the Party for seniors issues – shared housing, where elders from our communities can live together, also needs urgent attention of government authorities,” said, Nilima Venkat, General Manager at Shanti Niwas. She was speaking at the sidelines of a consultation with NGOs organised by her organisation this week, which focussed on elder experience evaluation especially in South Asian communities. Along with Indian representatives, community leaders from Pakistani and Nepalese communities were also present.

“We have been having such discussions for the past three months. Our goal is to collate everything together and come up with an action plan to deal with issues faced by elderly of the South Asia communities. This will then be presented to the government,” she informed.

Naveed Hameed, President of Pakistan Association of New Zealand, who attended the consultation this week added, “In our view the major challenge facing our elders, along with facing abuse at the hands of loved ones, is the language factor. With English not being the first language of any of us, elders often don’t know how and where to access the support needed.”

Meanwhile, on the question of what she wants the government to do in the near future, Venkat concluded, “The government has withdrawn funding for all the elder day-care programmes, from every community. This has affected the services we provide drastically. It will be good if the authorities think about restoring the same.”

-TIN Bureau