Comprehensive Elderly Care

Problem Statement

India Ageing Report by UNFPA, 2017 mentions that ‘when populations age rapidly, governments are often unprepared to mitigate the consequences; this has implications for the socioeconomic and health status of the elderly’. There is a need to strengthen existing ‘National Programme for Healthcare for the Elderly (NPHCE)’ with patient centric approach to cater to the growing needs of elderly. 

Programme Description

In Chandrapur, Maharastra a team was appointed at the community level to build capacity of existing NPHCE staff towards elderly care, monitoring and supportive supervision of Elderly clinics at PHC/CHC and organizing activities at the designated Activity centers. The team is actively involved in health education and awareness generation activities in the community and at the Elderly clinics. The team supports the community in identifying “Activity Centres for Elderly” (Mayechi Sawali) with in the community, mostly at village gram panchayat spaces managed by ASHAs and village volunteers run four days a week for 2-3 hours per day. Elderly enrolled in these centres are screened regularly for Chronic conditions and are facilitated for their visits to Elderly Care clinics at the nearest health care facility.

Following activities are undertaken at these designated Activity Centres:

• Physical activities: Simple exercises, Pedo-cycling, shoulder pulley exercise, Stress balls exercise and Group engagement activities.
• Recreational activities: Dancing, and singing, playing games, painting etc.
• Awareness sessions: Nutrition, chronic diseases, Treatment adherence, elder abuse, welfare schemes etc.
• Intergenerational bonding: Involving school children in various activities.

Programme Outcomes

Till date 85% of SDH/RH and 64% PHCs have functional weekly Elderly clinics wherein 13,347 elderly have been screened for various conditions like Hypertension, Diabetes, risk of fall, cognitive degeneration etc. 29 Elderly Activity Centers are functional wherein 388 elderly have been registered.

Scalability

This intervention builds on an existing National Programme (NPHCE) and uses existing resources at the community and facility level, making it a potential scalable model.

Implementation Partners

NHM Maharashtra in partnership with Tata Trusts.

Source : We Care Coffee Table Book - Good, Replicable and Innovative Practices 2019