A MORE positive attitude to old age must be developed in this State, the Association of Health Boards in Ireland annual conference heard yesterday.
Dr Rosaleen Corcoran, Director of Public Health with the North Eastern Health Board, said negative and discriminatory attitudes are often held within the healthcare profession and these are easily passed on.
Developing a positive attitude is a lifelong process, Dr Corcoran told the conference in Bantry, Co Cork, in an address on keeping the elderly in their own homes. She said the number of people aged 65 years and over in Ireland is steadily increasing, from 403,000 in 1991 to a projected 522,000 by 2001. The growth in the number of elderly is accompanied by a decline in the number of children under 15 years of age.
Health boards must ensure the elderly have access to an appropriate range of quality services in the community, she said. Respite care should be available to carers as well as information and education, stress counselling and sitting services.
Speaking on food safety and protection of the consumer, Dr Colin Hill, of the Department of Microbiology at University College Cork, said each consumer is likely to eat almost 100,000 meals in an average lifetime and must accept that this involves a degree of risk.
While every consumer has the right to expect any food available on the market should be safe, this does not absolve the consumer of responsibility to food safety.
"It is in everybody's interest to ensure that the food supply is as safe as possible. This can only be achieved at a price. However, with a well-educated public, a concerned industry and supportive Government agencies, it should be possible to minimise the risk associated with our daily bread," said Dr Hill, who is a member of the Food Safety Advisory Board.