Doha: Mubarak bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Executive Director of the Centre for Elderly Empowerment and Care (Ehsan), has said that the State of Qatar and the society are providing everything they can to serve older persons in these circumstances.
He added that many countries of the world neglect elderly people, while the State of Qatar takes all care and provides full services to them.
Speaking to Qatar TV, Al Khalifa, said: “When the coronavirus pandemic started, we followed the necessary health instructions, stopping home care and stopping many activities that had direct contact with the elderly.” “We also tried to stop the physical therapy that we were using for the elderly. We tried to make all of these things remotely in compliance with health instructions. We explained these treatments through different means of communication,” he added.
He further said that Ehsan maintains close contact with the elderly through phone and “Shawerni Service”, a service provided to the elderly in which social specialists speak Arabic and English languages and provide psychological counseling to them.
He noted that the goal of these specialists is to provide advice and the necessary instructions and guidance for the elderly. Al Khalifa pointed out that the quarantine causes a concern for the elderly and even for families, but it has been explained that social distance is effective ways to slow the spread of coronavirus. “We recommend families in such circumstances to sit with the elderly people and speak to them.”
In a recent statement to The Peninsula, he said that Ehsan supports older persons and their families in many ways, including reaching out to all elderly people who are beneficiaries of Ehsan’s services (home-care, physical therapy, and Ehsan clubs) through the launching of a centre-wide tele-community outreach service that regularly checks in with older persons to assess their overall condition and provide advice, reassurance, and raise their morale.
“Text messages with key awareness raising guidance are also being disseminated to the mobile phones of registered families,” said the Executive Director of Ehsan.
Among other ways to help elderly people is establishing a helpline service that receives calls from older persons in the community and their families and provides them with guidance, general psycho-social support during this crisis, and referral when needed, he added.
