Seniors Talk Health

The Uganda community seniors met and talked about their Health and Advance Care Planning for the first time at the West Footscray Neighbourhood House on February 22, 2023. The session was funded and attended by FECCA officials from Canberra.

This was the first time for seniors from the Ugandan Community in Victoria to come together and discuss issues that impact their health and well-being.  They discussed their future health – mostly with Advance Care Planning.  Advanced Care Planning is a process of documenting the decisions that you want to be followed by the health and medical professionals if you are not in a position to make such decisions.

“We all agree that it’s taboo in our community to plan for illness as we believe that we are inviting it, but there comes a time when we need decisions to be made in the way we want them to be. This is not only for seniors, but anyone can make such a formal decision so that they are included in the record for future reference at a time when we are incapacitated to make such choices,” said epidemiologist Dr Michael Muleme during the presentation that attracted  15 seniors and health workers from the community.

Another community senior Davis Wamawungo managed a feedback session, which discussed the challenges that seniors face in embracing Advance Care Plans from technological to cultural challenges.

In an earlier presentation by Norman Katende, it was found that very few seniors had come across or heard about Advance Care Planning, challenging the different parties to ensure that the seniors had the required information as a way of making informed decisions.