The second topic discussed at the seminar was on Empowering the Right to Health for Older Persons delivered by Dr. Sharon Lim, Penolong Pengarah from Unit Kesihatan Keluarga, Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Sabah. Dr. Sharon Lim highlighted the following points: 11. Empowering refers to ensuring individual are able to be independent and do things on their own. In the social context, an older person to be supplemented with additional power to improve their health. 12. Globalisation, lower mortality rates and dropping of child births, development of the health care services have contributed to the increase of older persons’ population. Development and its effects on social-economic aspect also contributed to the delay of marriage and childbearing. The pattern showed that from 1950 to 2050 the population of older persons is increasing while the child birth rate is decreasing. 13. The increase of older persons will be a challenge to the general health care services as it would require allocation of more resources to support the unique needs of the aging population. 14. World Health Organisation (WHO) projected that in 2020, threequarters of all deaths in developing countries would be related to ageing, with non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancers and diabetes, being cited as the largest cause of death. Other common illnesses facing older persons include osteoporosis, joint pains, depression and dementia. 15. According to Projections of Mortality and Burden of Disease 2004-2030 of World Health Organisation, there is an increase of chronic non-communicable diseases between 2008 and 2030 for high income countries, middle income countries and low income countries. This could be prevented by maintaining good health practices from an early age. 16. It was stressed that self care should start from home. However, the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2011 found that 5.3% of older persons of an estimated 107,035 population encountered home injuries. Most of them were urban residents compared to rural residents with household incomes of not more than RM4,000.00. The injured victims suffered prevailing health outcome and in some extreme cases faced permanent disability or/and death. 74 REPORT ON CARE SERVICES FOR OLDER PERSONS AND SUPPORT FOR CAREGIVERS