Older adults amid the pandemic
They are vital to families and communities, with specific needs and invaluable experience. The Red Cross Red Crescent network is assisting the most vulnerable, promoting intergenerational solidarity and supporting those who volunteer to help others
– Peppi! If only you knew how many people came… The Red Cross is here! Where are you? Take a day off work and come over! The party is here!
That is how one of the older women living in a care home in Italy was addressing her son through a tablet managed by an Italian Red Cross volunteer.
Visibly touched, another woman also got the opportunity to talk with and see her family after a long time:
– How are you? Are you doing fine? Why are you crying?
As deadly waves of the COVID-19 pandemic sometimes lead to strict visit regimes in care homes, new technologies and supportive caregivers have become key to help people (re)connect with their loved ones.
But there are other challenges, which require different and often innovative solutions. The health emergency and its socioeconomic effects have drastically impacted older adults in Europe, and it is crucial to ensure their needs are met at all times, despite lockdowns and other restrictions.
Dr Aneta Trgachevska, Acting Health and Care Coordinator for Europe at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), stressed the importance of supporting older adults through a life course approach:
“Our priority in the Red Cross Red Crescent network, also in COVID-19 times, is to help ensure the physical, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of older people, addressing ageism and age-based discrimination and exclusion while promoting intergenerational solidarity and dialogue.”
Food and service delivery
Across Europe, the IFRC is helping local teams in providing older adults with vital assistance every day: staff and volunteers are delivering home-based services including distribution of food, basic necessities and medicines, housework, shopping, pet care and healthcare including mental health and psychosocial support, among other activities.
Staff and volunteers also pay especial attention to helping older adults following climate-related disasters and other humanitarian crises, making sure disabled people, migrants, refugees and those who may be particularly vulnerable are adequately integrated and cared for.
In addition, they continue driving forward programmes for healthier aging, wellbeing and the prevention of non-communicable diseases — and they also support older adults who are volunteering or would like to help others.
Protecting those at risk
“I feel psychologically better, safer. Our family is big, with grandchildren, and I wanted to be able to see them. COVID-19 is a dangerous illness for humans, especially at my age. But the disease can be defeated through vaccination,” said a former basketball coach in his 80s who got vaccinated in Lithuania.
Older adults have been among the most impacted by severe illness and deaths linked to COVID-19.
As new variants spread across Europe, vaccination is an important measure to help curb the spread of the virus and protect those most at risk. Local Red Cross and Red Crescent teams have been checking on older adults while supporting COVID-19 immunization programmes: from awareness-raising to providing transportation for them to get to vaccination points, guiding them with administrative procedures, and offering psychosocial support.
Online family reunions at care homes
The long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in older adults are very significant too. There is a need to address the social impact of prolonged isolation in care homes, where older people faced (and still face) difficult circumstances while unable to be or even see their loved ones for months.
Last May, Italian Red Cross launched a pilot project in partnership with the IFRC linked to this, focused on older adults in home care. People in living in those facilities have been confronted with severe restrictions and isolation due to the pandemic, so local teams are now using digitalization (with devices such as tablets) to address loneliness and physical distancing as well as to enhance self-protection measures.
Hotlines and support groups against loneliness
Throughout Europe, local Red Cross and Red Crescent teams have also been conducting regular check-ins with older people, expanding hotlines and creating/maintaining support groups.
Moreover, they have put in place new creative initiatives for population of all ages, including older adults. In Serbia, for example, Serbian Red Cross launched a literary contest: they asked people ‘How did you spend your time in isolation?’ and compiled their letters in a book. Mira Lilić, from Belgrade, was one of the contributors:
“I watched the news only in the morning and mourned every deceased person, because everyone runs their fingers through the same soil, the same sun shines on us, and everyone has the same blood color.
“COVID-19 is destructive, but it has united us in efforts to help each other.
“To the youth, doctors, other dedicated staff and young volunteers: ‘Grandmother Mira loves you.’”
“I will never forget my wife’s radiant face”
Chronic conditions represent another challenge amid the pandemic: they have obviously not stopped , but the restrictions linked to the health emergency are hindering care to those in need.
Alzheimer’s disease, for example, affects around one million people in France — mainly older adults. Most patients continue to live at home, and French Red Cross has been actively involved in assisting family caregivers through a network of rest and relaxation facilities for patients across the country.[i]
Gérard, whose wife was a regular visitor at the rest and relaxation facilities, shared his experience in one of the centres: “I will never forget my wife’s radiant face as she sees me return at around 17:00, how she happily exclaims ‘It’s my husband!’, and how the volunteers cheer for our moment of joy.”[ii]
With the COVID-19 pandemic, this kind of activities had to be initially halted and then adapted, which is essential both for patients and for their family members but entails hard work and innovation.
Active volunteers
Unsurprisingly, many older people are also serving as Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers. Isabel Sánchez, for example, retired after a lifetime of teaching and is in a wheelchair due to polio, which doesn’t prevent her from coordinating a school project managed by Spanish Red Cross in her town.
Also in Spain, Constantina Gallardo used to attend English classes and is now running a reading club for her peers. Her motto? “Volunteering is a selfish activity: you always get more than you give!”
Vital to families and communities
Ageist attitudes can lead to exclusion and discrimination, especially in crisis times.[iii]
In some countries, the pandemic has made older adults poorer, sicker and more isolated. They have often been underserved, cast aside or viewed as a burden on a society’s resources even if they are vital to their families and communities — both at the personal level and through their work or volunteering.
With the COVID-19 emergency far from over, it is essential to further integrate and support everyone, young and old, looking at their needs and vulnerabilities but also to their unique knowledge, experience and skillsets.
Story by Ainhoa Larrea, IFRC
