AFTER more than 10 years of serving as chairman of the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC), Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer is soon to leave her post, but she says she intends to stay on and offer assistance where needed.

“I am stepping down basically because I have additional responsibilities at the University (of the West Indies). I am now head of my department (Community Health and Psychiatry), I am now the deputy dean for graduate studies. And I don’t feel that I am giving it the time that I need to give it,” Eldemire-Shearer said.

She was speaking with the Observer yesterday after a function to award persons who have supported the NCSC during its 30 years of existence.

Professor Eldemire-Shearer said her greatest accomplishment as chairman of the council is changing the perception of the elderly in Jamaica.

“The perception has changed to persons of value who continue to contribute in different ways and the different stages of life,” she said.

Meanwhile, Derrick Kellier, the minister of labour and social security, under whose portfolio the NCSC falls, told the Observer that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller would announce the new role that Professor Eldemire-Shearer would play in the organisation. Kellier said he believed that she would, however, still be deeply involved with the council.