The Center of Empowerment and Elderly Care (Ehsan), which operates under the umbrella of Qatar Social Work Foundation (QSW), launched an awareness campaign for the elderly and their caregivers on the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), through the center's social media platforms.
Head of the Technical Production Section in the Center's Awareness and Community Outreach Department Manal Al Mannai said that the campaign was launched in several stages, the first of which included sharing the precautionary and preventive measures taken by the center, as it took rapid and advance action to protect the elderly by stopping physiotherapy services and the mobile physiotherapy unit. Other preventive measures that were taken for the center's employees included the cancellation of most outdoor activities, as well as the suspension of day club activities and all training programs and competitions.
The second stage targeted the caregivers for the elderly by publishing a collection of educational interviews in several languages presented by specialists from the center's staff to educate the caregivers for the elderly on how to take care of them and protect them from the risk of infection, she added.
She pointed out that the third stage was focused on the psychological, health and social aspects, during which educational messages were prepared by specialists in mental and social health, as well as physiotherapy and others, where educational messages and videos on how to deal with the virus without panic or fear, were published, as well as on how caregivers deal with the elderly psychologically, by keeping them away from the negative news and the repeating of the sentence that suggests that this virus only affects the elderly.
Since the elderly should stay home to be protected from the risk of infection, several messages were presented on how to encourage them to move and do some exercise at home, she explained.
The campaign's materials are based primarily on the instructions that the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) regarding the virus prevention instructions, in addition to contributions by specialists in the center, Al Mannai added.
