“As the Association of Elderly Rights and Mental Health, we are asking… ”

Dear friends, the economic impoverishment in our society has brought private nursing homes to the point of closing. Within a year, the expenses of nursing homes, especially electricity bills, basic food and medicine prices, elderly diapers, gloves and personnel expenses doubled or tripled…they have become impoverished.
They tightened their belts a little bit more and now they’re starting to close.
The TRNC cannot afford to close existing private nursing homes. Because the state does not have enough nursing homes or care homes. While families cannot find a place to care for their elderly, we started to lose the existing private nursing homes. All the private nursing homes I’ve spoken to are either looking for someone to hand over their business or waiting for the elderly to find a place to leave to close it.
It is very easy to criticize nursing homes, but I would like to ask all governments and relevant ministers and prime ministers, what has been done so far to improve them. What have you done so far? We are in this situation today because you haven’t made the public investments you should have made 10 or 15 years ago, and you still haven’t given the incentives you should have given to the private sector.
Never mind the incentive, the state still pays a ridiculous amount of 4,500 TL per month to private nursing homes for the care of the orphaned poor elderly people that it has taken care of on its own initiative. Today, the care fee for an elderly person in a nursing home is at least 13,000 TL. Home care is at least 20,000 TL. How should our elderly people be treated for 4,500 TL or 5,000 TL, befitting human dignity?
At this point, my advice to the government is this: Establish a crisis desk under the relevant ministry and take measures to support the income of nursing homes. Turkey is a country that should be taken as an example in this field and is ready to help us in every way for the care of our elderly people. Not only the TRNC, but also Turkey is experiencing economic difficulties, but it pays two minimum wages every month to private nursing homes for the care of the elderly, and provides free diapers, medicine and health services.
What are you doing?
As the Association of Elderly Rights and Mental Health, we are asking…

Prof. Dr. Hatice Jenkins
Chairperson of the Elderly Rights and Mental Health Association