Population aging, as one of the main statistical phenomena facing Cuba, has been studied and attended to by the political will of the State since the triumph of the Revolution in January 1959, articulating efforts, programs and projects that guarantee a successful quality of life for those who reach old age.
Las Tunas, with a total of 108,717 people over 60, reports an average life expectancy of 79.5, one of the highest in the country, a result that validates the implementation of strategies from the Ministry of Public Health, in close coordination with other entities and mass organizations.
Periodic examinations of the elderly, having as main scenario the primary health care in the Family Medical Offices; the quarterly checks of the more than 130 centenarians that live in Las Tunas and the incorporation of this social group to grandfather's circles, constitute more than lines of work, guarantees that underpin an achievement that over six decades of Revolution is perfected.
Common practices such as collective birthdays in Nursing Homes, fundamentally and with all the honors to those who surpass the century of life, bring joy and hope. Such is the case of Teófilo Bermúdez Parras, from the municipality of Vázquez, who has just turned 110 and is the oldest in the province.
For José Luís Rondón Barbán, it is impossible to speak of his responsibility as head of the elderly section in the Provincial Health Directorate in Las Tunas and not to say: our grandparents and grandmothers, because he knows that beyond specialized care, the dispensing before any difficulty and the priority to access the Family Care System (SAF), working with the elderly is to attend one of the most sensitive population groups.
Hence the need to diagnose better and better what their needs are and work focused on their fulfillment, that's why Las Tunas is projected towards the creation of houses designed for the care of older adults with some physical-motor and intellectual disability.
In this sense, work is being done on the construction of a new nursing home in the town of Omaja, municipality of Majibacoa, with a total of 50 places for geriatric care, and another place, in the capital of the province, in addition to it carries out a process of integral repair and improvement of furniture in all grandparents' and nursing homes.
The creation of schools of caregivers and the training of institutional assistants are also two of the key factors to guarantee the effectiveness of this program, because thanks to the implementation of these schools in the 14 health areas of the territory, there is a considerable decrease of indicators related to institutional accidents and pressure ulcers (bedsores), an effort that allows Las Tunas to exhibit much lower figures than to the rest of the country.
Fully exploit the potential offered by the health system through grandparents' houses, which offer a day service and comprehensive rehabilitation; as well as the effective articulation of efforts by the Cuban State, organizations such as the National Institute of Sports and Physical Education and Recreation (Inder), Commerce and Gastronomy, Social Security, and others, are committed to grant a better quality of life to those who have the joy of belonging to the groups of the third, the fourth, and especially, the fifth age in Las Tunas.
