Old people in the movies

After all my serious messages from Geneva and after a whole week of hard work, I would like to write about something less formal: old people and movies. It is this week filmfestival in Rotterdam and I am a bit jealous that many people can spend the whole week just watching films from all over the world. For the first time in 10 years I will see less than 10 films. Just this Saturday I can go to 2 films.

The reason to write something about ageing and film is that you can learn a lot about ageing and health just by going to the cinema. Recently a very interesting film on the topic draw much attention: 'Amour' by Michael Haneke. George and Anne are in their 80s and both retired music teachers. One day Anne has a stroke and George has to take care of her. You will have to see the movie yourself to learn what that means for her, himself and the kids. The film got many good reviews and is worth seeing.

But there are many more films with this theme and that offer a less western orientation. Just consider many movies in the Rottterdam filmfestival. Last year I saw 'A simple life' by Ann Hui from Hong Kong. The story is about a rich Hong Kong inhabitant who has always been cared for by his housekeeper. Suddenly he has to look after her when she gets old and ill. Equally well acted as Amour and giving the different perspective of care for old people in Asia.

Other films that I have not yet seen and sometimes much shorter than full feature films are 'Ageing 1986 - 1996' by Hironi Tsushida (4 minutes, Japan), 'my dad is 100 years old' (hommage to Roberto Rossellini by his daughter, director of films as Roma and Viaggio and married to Ingrid Bergman) and 'The future is getting old like the rest of us' by Beatrice Gibson with 8 monologues set in old peoples' homes.

It is not just about people getting sick and needing help suddenly. In 'Old woman' (Singapore 2005) the old woman has had enough. She is lonely and has nothing to live for. Then suddenly there is a baby on the doorstep and she has to look after her. 'An old man' by Hai Bo from China tells a similar story for an old Chinese man.

And finally, the most famous of all must be 'No country for old men' by the Coen brothers. This must be an interesting film for the Japanese minister of Finance who came in the news this week by saying that old people could better hurry up and die instead of using precious health care resources.

Do you know about other examples of films on ageing and old people? Just let me know. For now I wish you all a pleasant weekend with hopefully lots of movies or other exciting things.

Organising the meeting on functional decline

In my last blog I said that I would write a bit more about the meeting I am supposed to organise. Or rather WE are supposed to organise. Organising a big event is something you can never do alone. I am lucky that we have such a good team at both the ministry in the Netherlands and at the WHO. We all collaborate to arrange speeches, catering, speakers, participants, papers and many more things. I am now busy with a kind of project sheet where all tasks and deadlines are included so we can monitor the progress.

Actually it is not even a big conference but a more restricted high level meeting. The purpose is not to have as many powerpoint presentations as possible (no power and no point) but to work in working groups and together come to a shared agenda. People from various countries will be present to express what their country needs and what gaps in knowledge and policy exists. Representatives from various international organisation will listen and try to identify what they can do to contribute to innovative solutions.

But to what? What is the topic of the conference? It is a mouth full as we say in Dutch: Building systems to manage and prevent functional decline in ageing populations. In other and more simple words. There are more and more older people. We need to prevent that they become frail and need costly cure and care and we want the to live independent and happy. And if they become frail and need care, we must organise it in an efficient and patientfriendly manner. And - that is where WHO has much expertise - how this can be done in different countries with different income levels and cultural backgrounds.

We have to organise this in just three months time. That is a bit of a challenge. Luckily we gained one more week as the flower parade in Holland resulted in fully booked hotels on the date we envisaged (we checked for other big conferences but not for flower parades, which I should have known as they come through my street every year). So we had to postpone it with a week. Still time is limited. Getting people from all over the world will take time as they need visa and time in their agenda. Writing backgroundpapers is also something that takes time. But I am confident it can be done.

Of course we donot know relevant people from all countries in the world. But we can use the regional network from WHO to ensure that we will have a good mix of interesting countries and people. WHO has 6 regional offices in Cairo, Washington, Copenhagen, Brazaville (Congo), New Delhi and Manilla. In each of these offices there is a coordinator for ageing (and sometimes also other topics) who knows many people. And in hq (head quarters in geneva as they say here) they also have many contacts.

Next time I will probably write a bit more about functional decline in movies. The Rotterdam Film Festival will start this week and although I am not able to go to many movies this year, I am in the mood for cinema... But as said that will be next week

Fred Lafeber

The first week working at WHO

The first week of working at WHO is behind me. Overall, I am very pleased with how it went. I have nice and interesting colleagues, an inspiring director, a pleasant house and a good bike. What else can one wish? Of course there were also some less fascinating things. Especially in a first week there are many things to arrange. I had to fill in numerous forms, some on paper and some in a rather complicated employee self service system: to get a Swiss ID card, a Swiss bank account, and full rights as WHO staff member. I also needed to arrange a computer account, a telephone, a proper desk and a reusable coffee cup. But I expected worse and many people were very patient and kindly explained me what to do.

So let me elaborate on the pleasant things. As said I have great colleagues. My room mate for the coming 2 months is Chek from Singapore. He is a short term expert to write for our long term care meeting a paper on structuring and financing long term care in low and middle income countries. Next to our room is Tuohong, seconded from China, a country that is facing serious challenges in ageing due to years of one child policy. Then there is Lisa from Germany. She coordinates the age friendly cities programma, in which 1000 municipalities now participate. She gets assistance from Alicia, an intern from Barbados. In her room is also Andrea from Canada who will contribute to the long term care meeting with a paper on frailty and dependence. Ritu, a fixed staff member who is already many years working at WHO will be responsible for the world report on ageing to be published in 2015. Islene from Brasil will join the team later and finally Charlotte the secretary keeps this whole international bunch of people together.

The director of the department is John Beard. Untill recently he had few people working for him, but as the topics of ageing and health over the life course are gaining in importance at WHO, he is able to expand. He is from Australia and is involved in many interesting scenes, such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the sustainable development trajectory in New York (follow up of millennium development goals).

Then my pleasant house. I live in Eaux Vives, 200 meters from the lake in the appartment of a German lady involved in opera scenography. She used part of the house as working place and there is a cupboard full of painting stuff as well as many opera books and CDs. The house is full furnished and I really mean fully. As she now lives in France I can use all the stuff I need. I have 2 big rooms, a small kitchen and a bath room. It is just what I wanted and the neighboorhood is very lively with small bars, 3 supermarkets, a cheap but good pizzeria and an art cinema.

There is also a small cellar where I can store the bike that I bought from my predecessor at WHO. In the morning I take it out and I bike 10 minutes along the lake before going uphill to the WHO. That is already in winter a very pleasant tour and gives me some exercise. The streets are a bit dangerous as cars are not used that much to bikes, but you can usually use the bus lanes which makes it safer.

Next time I will write more about how we started preparing for the conference. Good luck!

What is this blog about?

From 7 January 2013 I will start working for 6 months at the World Health Organisation in Geneva. I will work as technical officer in the Department of Ageing and the Life Course.  My main task will be to contribute to activities of the World Health Organisation in the field of long term care.For example, we will organise a high level meeting with other organisations and countries to discuss priorities and what can be done to assist policy makers.

But more about that later. In this blog I will  update you on this work. But I will also share my experiences of working in a big UN organisation and also write something about the topic ageing and long term care itself.

Monday 7 January I will fly to Geneva for the first time. The flight is early: at 6.55 so that I can be at my desk at 9 am. I look forward to it and will share as soon as possible my first experiences here.

For now I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year !!!