Marikina offers extra care for elderly

Marikina City's Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) will be moving to the city health office, Mayor Marjorie Ann "Maan" Teodoro announced over the weekend.

"Our senior citizens' office which previously occupied a small space behind the theatre will be moved to the first floor of the city health office, which is more spacious," Teodoro said in an interview.

"What's more important is that we have a 'Botika ng Bayan' inside the facility where they [senior citizens] can get their maintenance medicines for free. And if they need medical attention, we also have a doctor there on the same floor," the mayor added.

Teodoro also said that they are planning to construct a geriatric center, an aged care facility that provides free wellness and health care services for the city's elderly residents.

"When we visited Pasig City in the past few months, we have seen the benefits of having a geriatric center. We want to replicate it here in Marikina, but we want to level it up a little bit," she said.

Teodoro said they have already found a site at the Marikina Diagnostic and Medical Arts building.

"We will put our geriatric center on the first floor of the Marikina Diagnostic and Medical Arts building," she added.

The geriatric center, according to her, is equipped with doctors, and will have a physical therapy room, as well as an area for traditional medicine area such as acupuncture, ventosa, healing massage and, of course, psycho-social therapy for the city's senior citizens.

"We know when they reached a certain age, our senior citizens' brain function must always be active. So, that's what we want to do in our geriatric center," the mayor added.