The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Wellness Centre in collaboration with the Ghana Public Universities Pensioners Association (GPUPA)-KNUST Branch, is set to organise a series of meetings to discuss issues concerning older and retired members of the University community's health and well-being, their needs and interests. The maiden meeting dubbed "Time with the Retirees Series- A Continuous Conversation for Aging Gracefully" was held on Thursday, 30th June, 2022 at the KNUST Community Centre.
Dr. Phyllis Tawiah, a Geriatrician and member of the Wellness Committee, educated the members on the aim of the KNUST Wellness Centre. According to her, the Wellness Centre is a state-of-the-art Health, Nutrition and Fitness Consultancy Centre created under the office of the Vice Chancellor, to promote preventive health over curative health in the University community. She also stated that the Centre provides health assessments to assist people to understand their health status in order to provide therapeutic guidance and treatment.
She indicated that the Centre, located at the Hale and Hearty Centre, near the KNUST Swimming Pool provides Psychological Counselling, Diet and Nutrition Counselling, Gym Services, and Physiotherapy Services. In this regard, she stated that the Centre now places a high focus on the retirees as they require extensive medical care in order to age gracefully, thus, the need to organise such meetings to have healthy discussions for healthy living. She was hopeful that subsequent meetings with the retirees would yield greater results.
The Retirees shared their areas of interest with the wellness team. They were elated to have them organise such a meeting and urged the Management of the Centre to periodically organise health screening exercises to help them check their health statuses. They further appealed to the University Management to support them with funds for reading glasses and provide them with ‘tags/special identification cards as pensioners’ for easy access whenever they visit the hospital.