VOL. 67, NO. 3 - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

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Communication from the Geneva Office of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund Since 1 September 2007, the new UNJSPF offices are located at the Visits : Du Pont de Nemours Building Chemin du Pavillon 2 1218 Grand-Saconnex, GE, Switzerland Should you wish to visit the Fund, the Client Servicing Unit is open every weekday, except Thursday, from 8:30 to 17:00. To ensure the best personal attention, please make an appointment with the Client Servicing Unit, at least 24 hours before your intended visit. You should present an identity card at the reception desk of the Du Pont de Nemours building. A member of the Client Servicing Unit will meet you at the desk to guide you to our offices. Telephone calls: The Client Servicing Unit is available by telephone from 8:30 t0 17:30 from Monday to Friday. The telephone numbers are: Telephone: +41 (0)22 928 88 00 Internal calls: 88800 Fax : +41 (0)22 928 90 99 (the old telephone numbers have been deactivated) e-mail: jspfgva@unog.ch By post: There is no change to the administrative postal address of the Fund (including the diplomatic pouch) United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Express mail only (DHL, UPS, FedEx. Etc.) should be addressed directly to the UNJSPF , Du Pont de Nemours Building, Chemin du Pavillon 2, CH-1218 Grand-Saconnex. **** The Geneva Office of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund wishes to recall that it has responsibility for the files of retirees and beneficiaries in Europe, Africa and the Near-East. Retirees and beneficiaries living in all other regions should contact the New York Office of the Fund : United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund United Nations P.O. Box 5036 New York, NY 10017, USA Tel. 212 963 6931 - Fax. 212 963 3146 – e-mail: unjspf@un.org 47
HEALTH THE AAFI-AFICS INFORMATION SEMINAR ON LONG TERM CARE 24 January 2008 We are publishing in this issue of the Bulletin the opening remarks of Dr Halfdan Mahler and the reflections of our colleague Angela Butler, both speeches having been very much in demand. Opening remarks by Dr. Halfdan Mahler, former Director-General of WHO When somebody called me over the telephone and said “you are coming to the opening of an AAFI-AFICS seminar on long-term care ...”, I thought I was coming to sit down and I said : “yes, I’ll come”. I very quickly found out that I had been a very feeble-minded Santa Klaus to believe that this was just an invitation to come and have fun here, but I was supposed to perform, and say a few opening remarks. So here they are. It is very fitting that AAFI-AFICS should have taken this initiative, not least because there is a very steep, exponential increase in the need for long-term care; and this is not only in this privileged part of the world, (be it in the super-duper privileged Geneva or in another part of Switzerland or in France), but it is really everywhere. It is therefore particularly important that we should be properly informed about the options to us here and elsewhere. We cannot say that long-term care is something that just affects others because directly or indirectly it does and will affect us all. I cannot help, Mr. Chairman, being a WHO person, but give you the definition of health in that organization’s constitution because that is imminently relevant to long-term care. For WHO, “Health is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Before I left WHO, and that is more than 20 years ago, there was a strong move to add to that definition “spiritual”; that is that health is also a state of “spiritual” well-being. Being the son of a priest, I am an atheist but I was very much in favour of the idea of adding “spiritual”, because that is very important thing too and has, in my opinion, nothing to do with religion. WHO has also recently given a definition of ageing: “a process of optimising opportunities for health participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age”. Now, this is of course not a local problem but it is a global phenomenon. We tend to associate the exponential need for long-term care services and support with the relatively rich industrialized countries. Given my former WHO privileges, you will not be surprised if I frame some of my comments in a global context. Also to see if there is something that we, in the so-called developed world, and more particularly in the area surrounding Geneva, can learn from reflecting on long-term care in all regions of the world, including reflecting in our conscience on facing the monstrous social economic inequities in the contemporary world. Here come some statistics which I shall make short to make sure they are not boring, but these are very important demographic and epidemiological shifts and quite startling ones. By 2020, the percentage of the population that will be more than 65 years old is quite extraordinary. For example, by 2020 in Switzerland and in France more than 20% of the population will be 65 or more. There are similar examples across the region. But, by 2050, it is estimated that the rest of the world will rapidly be catching up. By 2050, 23 % of the population in China will be over 65 years, in Thailand over 21 %, etc. etc. And by then UK and France in 2050 will have a quarter of their populations over 65; staggering figures. And at the same time, of course, medical science will continue to have made very great progress in warding off diseases; but don’t let us forget that frailty is often the price of longevity. And hence the need for longterm care everywhere. In 2003, WHO said that the need for long-term care in the developing world will rise by as much as 400 % in the coming few decades – a 400 % increase in need; the United Nations World Economic and Social Survey in 2007 says, I quote: “that the epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases has already taken place in developed countries… but it is now establishing itself in very many developing countries”. 48
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