In her speech at the opening, our Minister Yanık said, "We are diversifying and generalizing our services in order to meet the needs of population of older persons regarding social services, care and especially social assistance and health."
Derya Yanık, Minister of Family and Social Services, attended the opening ceremony of the "Digital Spring Room" in Özden Nursing Home after visiting Governor Erdinç Yılmaz in Osmaniye, where she came to make contacts.
Before the ceremony, Minister Yanık visited the exhibition of handcrafted products made by the residents of the nursing home, and then listened to the poems recited by the residents of the nursing home and the songs they sang.
Speaking at the ceremony here, Yanık stated that they opened this room in the nursing home in cooperation with Turkcell. Explaining that they see it very important for adults to benefit from technology as much as anyone else in accessing information, Yanık continued as follows:
“We care about learning how you see the world, our country and us and to develop and transform ourselves accordingly. In this respect, the Digital Spring Project is a project that makes us extremely excited and happy. Moreover, in the 2 years we have left behind, we have also unfortunately experienced how important digital opportunities are in this sense, in a time when digital opportunities are closed during the pandemic period, when any of our mobility and social relations are very limited. For this reason, it is very important for us that you, precious older pesons, can use these digital channels, meet with their loved ones far away, hear their voice and see their image. We have established and continue to establish the Digital Spring Project, which enables older persons living in nursing homes affiliated to our Ministry to be a part of the digital world and improves the digital literacy of older persons which connects them with the digital world."
1 in 10 people in Türkiye is 65 years or older
Minister Yanık stated that approximately 9.8 percent of the world's population and 9.7 percent of the country's population are 65 years old and over. Indicating that approximately one out of every 10 people in Türkiye is 65 years or older, Yanık continued her words as follows:
“The population of older persons in our country increased by 19.6 percent in the period of 2017-2021, only a 5-year period. This number increased from 6 million 895 thousand 385 people to 8 million 245 thousand 124 people. In other words, we see a population over 65 years old in our country, which is more than the population of 67 countries including Singapore, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Bulgaria. In the next 60 years, one out of every 4 people living in our country is expected to be 65 years or older, according to the statistics we made today. From this point of view, we will need many services in this field in the future. For this reason, we are already working for those days. We are diversifying and expanding our services in order to meet the needs of older persons regarding social services, care and especially social assistance and health.”
Reminding that they declared 2019 as the Year of Older Persons with the acceptance of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Yanık said: “We held our 1st Council on Ageing in February of the same year. Let me announce here that we have prepared the 2030 Ageing Vision Document and Action Plan by combining the results of this council, which shapes our country's vision in terms of social awareness on ageing and older persons."
Services of the Ministry to older persons
Indicating that they provide services to all older persons, whether they have social security or not, in nursing homes and care centres for older persons spread all over the country, within the scope of Institutional Residential Care Services for Older Persons, Yanık continued as follows:
“We provide care services for more than 27 thousand older persons in our 449 nursing homes and care centres for older persons with a capacity of more than 37 thousand, both public and private. In Osmaniye, we serve 87 of older persons in Özden Nursing Home, which is affiliated to our ministry, and the total capacity of our nursing home is 110. Again in Osmaniye, we provide services to 113 persons with disabilities in our 2 care and rehabilitation centres affiliated to our ministry. We also provide day care services at these centres. In addition, we provide services to 192 citizens in 3 private care and rehabilitation centres for persons with disabilities in Osmaniye, which are licensed, financed and supervised by our ministry. Again, we pay home care allowance to our 4 thousand 930 citizens of Osmaniye. While older persons who are in good economic condition but are socially deprived benefit from our services at affordable prices, we offer these services free of charge to older persons who are economically and socially deprived and older persons who are awarded the Medal of Independence. We also provide monthly allowance from our ministry budget to older persons who receive service from our institutions without income.
"There are some who promise to solve solved problems"
Emphasizing that Türkiye has made great strides in every field in the last 20 years, Yanık said:
"Our country provided such great services in fields such as education, health, defence industry, and transportation that we sometimes have trouble counting them. From time to time, I ask myself: ‘Are we explaining too much? Are our conversations too long?’ From the point of view of those who listen I ask: 'Are we pushing your patience?' But we have to admit that we have many colleagues who have performed this service over the years and contributed in 20 years, and many of our friends who have passed these responsibilities before us. You are there. Our President has a will, struggle, vision and dream of Türkiye. Here we say, 'The next century will be the century of Türkiye. We will turn this country into the hometown of the century. We have such a dream. Therefore, sometimes it is necessary to record them, perhaps at the expense of pushing the patience a little. Because if we do not tell, there are some that put forward the works done as if it is a new service, try to claim the works done, and promise to solve the solved problems. We really don't want to give them this opportunity."
Minister Yanık said that they designed nursing homes with a very different vision from the past, in 3 different project types: site, courtyard and small house type.
Minister Yanık stated that those who know best how to arrange single and double rooms for older persons and improve physical conditions in their organizations are those who benefit from these services.
Noting that care services are provided by qualified personnel who have received training in their field due to the quality of service, Yanık said, "We support older persons who are cared for with their families, with the services we offer in our day care service centres, in addition to institutional care. 538 older persons actively benefit from our day care services in our 37 day care facilities.”
YADES Program
Yanık reminded that they started the Elderly Support Program (YADES) in order to raise awareness in the field of old age by activating local dynamics within the scope of day and home care services, to support older persons in their home environment and to participate in social life.
Indicating that many services such as personal care at home, house cleaning and cooking, are carried out with the support of the ministry, by local administrations, Yanık said, "These are very important. Supporting older persons, who have difficulties in performing their self-care or maintaining their daily lives, through YADES is of vital importance for them. We, as the ministry, are responsible for providing this service to them and we are performing the best services together with our local administrations as much as we can."
Yanık announced that they will implement YADES in Osmaniye with the help of both provincial and district municipalities.
Noting that they also support older persons with social assistance, Yanık stated that they regularly give monthly pensions to more than 765,000 older persons within the scope of the relevant law.
"We aim to establish 4 more Digital Spring Rooms"
Explaining that a great social transformation is taking place and that everyone has smartphones and tablets in their hands, Minister Yanık continued as follows:
“While everyone and everything around us is in the fast flow of this digital world, it is not possible for us to expect older persons to stay out of this and watch what is happening. Thinking about what we can do for this, we held meetings with groups that left their mark on Türkiye's digital world. We made protocols with them and aimed to include them in the digital transformation process in a harmonious manner and to provide digital literacy training and we started this movement. In this direction, we achieved really good results on the way we started with Turkcell. In our different nursing homes where we set up Digital Spring Rooms, older persons have started to use these digital channels intensively and in a very functional way. That's where it's spread. It has shed some light on us. We have prepared educational content and programs to increase the financial and digital literacy of older persons. Within the scope of these trainings, we also provide safe internet usage trainings for you to get to know, learn and use technological approaches in our nursing homes. We are establishing our Digital Spring Rooms to share equal opportunities in the digital world and to enable older persons to participate in this channel. We set up digital spring rooms in five nursing homes in Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa and Izmir. This will be the 6th. After Osmaniye, we aim to establish four more digital spring rooms in our nursing homes in different provinces by the end of this year. With our project, which was realized in cooperation with our Ministry and Turkcell, we will hopefully create an environment where older persons can meet and mingle with technology in other nursing homes.”
Indicating that in the Digital Spring Rooms, older persons can video call with their loved ones, perform their transactions within the scope of e-Government, and play digital games to spend time, Yanık explained the benefits of these rooms for older persons.
After the speeches, Yanık and the participants opened the Digital Spring Room. Yanık visited the room, wore VR glasses, chatted with the residents of the nursing home, played bocce with the nursing home bocce team in the institution garden.
Osmaniye Governor Erdinç Yılmaz, AK Parti Osmaniye Deputy Mücahit Durmuşoğlu, Osmaniye Mayor Kadir Kara and guests attended the ceremony.
Visit to martyr's family and Toprakkale Municipality
Later, Minister Yanık paid a condolence visit to the family of Expert Sergeant Fatih Kalkan, who was martyred in the clash with terrorists in Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq. The visit was closed to the press.
Yanık, who also visited Toprakkale Municipality, examined the section created for martyrs here.
Minister Yanık received information about the works of the municipality from Mayor Mehmet Daşöz.