A burden or a resource? In an increasingly aging society, restoring a role – and identity – to the elderly becomes essential. And so, along three programmatic lines – training, socialization and inclusion – broken down into different steps, the Region has concretely decided to invest in the health, social well-being and active participation of the over-65s. Delaying aging and enhancing the contribution and skills that the third and fourth ages of life can give to the community are the objectives of the three-year operational program, approved on Tuesday by the third commission and now ready for the final examination by the Regional Council.
The scenario
That Calabria is progressively aging, like the rest of the country, is nothing new. And it is no coincidence that the measure is addressed to an increasingly large audience. The data speak clearly, as transferred in the proposal of the Regional Council: “The phenomenon of demographic aging significantly characterizes the regional territory, affected, in the long term, by a dynamic of contraction in births and a widespread improvement in health conditions”. According to the latest Istat data, the aging index (the coexistence ratio between the elderly and the younger population) in 2024 in Calabria is equal to 189.0 compared to a national average of 199.8.
Although lower than the national figure, in the 2004–2024 period the old-age index of the Calabrian population has constantly increased, with a variation of +78.1 points in twenty years against the national +64.2. The highest incidence is recorded in the province of Cosenza where the old-age index in 2024 is 199.8. Catanzaro (198.7) and Vibo Valentia (193.0) follow. The values of the province of Reggio (178.0) and Crotone (161.8) are more contained. The municipalities with the highest old-age index are distributed throughout the regional territory but with a picture defined as “more worrying” in the internal areas (“Sila and Presila” old-age index of 290.2, “Reventino – Savuto” 238.6, Area Grecanica 212.8 “Ionico – Serre” 169.7). Roccaforte del Greco, in the Reggio Calabria area, presents the most alarming data (total population equal to 316, of which 111 over sixty-five and 6 aged 0-14; old age index 1,850.0); the lowest value in Platì, also in the Reggio Calabria area, which out of 3,690 residents has 573 over sixty-five and 847 aged 0-14; old age index 67.7).
The prospects
The plan developed by the Council implements regional law 12 of 16 May 2018 containing “Rules for the protection, promotion and valorization of Active Ageing”. «It is – explained in the commission the lawyer Sara Lo Presti of the Health and Welfare department – a preparatory plan for the implementation of the related future projects».
For this reason too, the overall investment remains to be quantified, while keeping in mind that the lines of action of the three-year plan can be traced back to the “three fundamental dimensions along which – it is specified – the approach to Active Ageing under Law no. 12/2018 takes place”: training, socialization and inclusion. Active promoters of the measures will have to be local authorities, associations, trade unions and educational institutions.
The concrete initiatives will include training, cultural and inclusion paths, support for supportive neighborhoods and family associations and promotion of intergenerational housing models, as well as cultural exchange projects between the elderly and young people. «With the drafting of the three-year Operational Program, we will focus on planning the areas of intervention to make the elderly an essential resource of the regional social system.
The goal is to respond to the demographic aging of Calabria and to improve the quality of life of the elderly, promoting their social, economic and cultural participation, as well as maintaining personal autonomy”, sums up the president of the health and social activities commission of the regional council, Pasqualina Straface.
The issue of funding In recent weeks, Spi Cgil, Uil Pensionati and Fnp Cisl had intervened on the issue after a meeting with Councillor Emma Staine: after the operational plan, we are already looking at the first annual implementation plan in which the actions to be implemented and the related financial resources to support them will be made explicit. In this perspective, doubts have been expressed about the uncertainty of funding: the request is to make European structural funds and the Region’s own funds available. Without certainty about the allocations, the annual plans will be a puzzle.