A senior government official called for urgent action on Barbados’ rapidly ageing population, insisting that events like the National Senior Games should be treated as prototypes for fostering healthier, more active lives among older citizens—not just as momentary celebrations.
Speaking at the weekend’s activities at the Barbados Community College, acting Permanent Secretary Mark Franklin called for greater awareness of the practical steps required to support healthy, independent living as the population gets older.
“We are advised in the last census that was done in 2021, that 60 per cent of all Barbadians are over the age of 35, 25 per cent of all Barbadians are over the age of 60,” he told Barbados TODAY. “The planning for that type of demographic shift starts from now, and we have to advise Barbadians as to the trends and developments, and we have to get Barbadians into planning for their health.”’
Experts say Barbados is on the brink of a major demographic shift, with projections showing that by 2050, one in two Barbadians will be over the age of 60. This would make the country the first in the Americas with a majority elderly population, they project.
This year, the National Senior Games adopted a new structure to better reflect active ageing.
“In past years, what we would have done, we would have tried to combine everything within a couple of days’ time frame. We would have done the major sports, and we would have combined them with athletics. But we decided to do a different structure this year,” Franklin explained.
While athletics were held in June, the other sporting disciplines are being staged in September to coincide with Senior Citizens Month. “We also said, let us commemorate and recognise Senior Citizens Month by hosting a healthy and active ageing set of events within the month,” Franklin added. “The feedback largely has been positive. One thing that we have to reconsider is the timing of the events; we may have started some of them a little too early in the morning.
“When the events are completed later in the month… we will go back to the drawing board, we will have our post-planning sessions, look at what went right, what did not go right and look to improve upon them for 2026 so we have bigger, better, more improved and efficient games.”
He continued: “We will revisit the [public relations] strategy because we want to get more people involved. We want to let them know of these things called the National Senior Games and encourage people to get involved in healthy and active ageing.”
Expressing appreciation, Franklin said: “Special kudos have to go to Ytannia Wiggins, the National Senior Games coordinator, who has done a tireless job in terms of making sure that these games were brought to the level that they were.”
Participants also praised the new format. Charles Walcott said, “Having the senior games here at BCC for the team sports is an excellent idea, where you get a chance to see the sports all at once. I think most of the sporting disciplines in Barbados are lacking participation, and the schools need to come out to events like this so that they can be exposed to the sport at the highest level. We have national players here.”
Barbados Chess Federation president, Allan Herbert, said the chess competition attracted two age categories, 50-plus and 65-plus.
He said, “We are playing a slightly faster time control than our standard form, and so far, the players have been adapting to it pretty well.
“We have had a pretty good two days. The facilities here are quite comfortable.”
Herbert commended combining sports in one location to create a multidisciplinary experience. “I think it was a good initiative and hopefully by next year we will see more and more persons coming out,” he said.
(STT)
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