NSCC develops curriculum to standardize care for older persons

The National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) has said it is developing curriculum to standardize care for older persons in the country and make it more attractive.

The Director General of the Centre, Emem Omokaro, while speaking at an expert meeting on validation of draft national benchmark for training older people care givers today in Abuja, said the centre is working with the National Board For Technical Education to develop the curriculum.

She said the center was working with NBTE to classify the care and skills ensuring caregivers are well recognized in the country

Omokaro said with the standardization of care providers in the country, Health insurance companies can now work with NSCC to see the products that are available and see which one the can align with, for instance community care.

She said: “We hope that agencies begin to employ caregivers and they begin to provide care to communities and homes and then we will work out who pays the caregivers, stressing the need to build a system, framework and the competence that is globally recognized and has certification.”

The DG revealed that NSCC has produced a draft of the standard curriculum for training caregivers as well as guidelines classifying care settings, saying the aim is to able to produce a global standard, documents that will emphasize skills and competencies for caring for older persons and can stand up to best practices, and also putting in place mechanism for accessing the trainers training centers.

Also the Chief Social Welfare Officer Focal Person, Joseph Dzungwe, who represented the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo said with the ageing population growing faster, there is need for training professional care givers.