Healthcare for the elderly, an increasing demand on the African Continent
Uganda’s Life expectancy increased by nearly 20 years in the last two decades. Thanks to modest improvements in maternal and child health, and public health measures to reduce mortality due to communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The increasing life expectancy has led to steady growth of the elderly population in Uganda,as is the case for many other countries across the continent. Today, Uganda has over over three million elderly. However, there are no indicators that the current policies will change soon to prioritize the healthcare needs of this demographic. As the policy makers continue to sweep this problem under the rug, it’s having real socio-economic stresses at national and household levels. For instance, over the last ten years my family of seven suffered effects of losing our father at 55 as the sole breadwinner. My dad succumbed to kidney failure following a late diagnosis of hypertension due to limited access to healthcare in rural south-western Uganda. My dad’s passing was a first-eye opener into this growing problem. Throughout my clinical practice, I continue to notice this growing problem among this group of mid-aged family heads; majority continue to be diagnosed late with complications of many preventable diseases and their families suffering the consequences of such unexpected and premature deaths. While studying at UC Berkeley in 2019, the problem reared its ugly head when from miles away, I had to support my single mother to get needed medical attention. I knew then, it was time to create a platform that would forever change my family’s life and the entire community of the elderly in Uganda and across East Africa. Hence the birth of the Accompanied Health Initiative (ACHI), whose mission is to advance access to quality and affordable healthcare for the elderly aged 55 years or older in rural Uganda. At ACHI, we leverage on a network of trained health professionals embedded in rural to provide quality and timely healthcare both at household and community level as well as tele-health services tailed to the needs of our elderly in rural communities. We invite everyone to join us on this journey of advancing healthcare equity for our most vulnerable populations on the African continent.
Daphine Namara Arinaitwe, MD, MPH,
Co-founder & CEO Accompanied Health Initiative
