General safety orientation as regards the Maltese elderly community

Abstract

Currently, in Malta, there is an additional emphasis on the need to encourage more elderly people to live in the community other than in institutions. "Every attempt must be made to maintain the elderly clients in their own home if this is their wish and that of their family". (Baritt, 1990, 15). However, before encouraging elderly people to continue living in their own homes, society must be sure that general safety is being guaranteed. The general aims of this study are to discover whether elderly people feel generally safe in their own homes and in the community. To investigate what encourages them to live in the community and what threatens them from living in the community. To see what type of formal systems (including services) and informal networks already exist to facilitate safe living in the community and to discover to what extent are these services and informal networks of help to elderly people. In order to find out the type of formal services that exist which can help elderly people living in the community to feel generally safe a number of interviews were carried out and some literature was also read. This information is included in the literature review (Chapter 2). Then, in order to find out whether elderly people feel generally safe in the community and to what extent are these services and informal networks of help to elderly people a number of interviews were carried out. The interviews were carried out with twenty elderly people who are 70 years or older and live at Sliema. The key findings that emerged from this study are; that almost all the elderly people interviewed feel safe both in their own homes and in the community. However, as this study is going to show there is still the need for further improvement in order to have a Maltese society that guarantees general safety for all the elderly people. For this to occur, amongst others, laws need to be updated, community services should be primarily directed to elderly people who are more generally at risk and more attention needs to be paid so that the general safety needs of elderly people will be more easily identified. The latter can be reached through Local Councils and social workers that work with elderly people.