65+ ELDERLY RIGHTS ASSOCIATION: We can live together, we can prevent illness together, we can heal together.
The elderly should make an emergency plan with family members, neighbors, people they receive support from.
Plan who will support you if you get sick, and who will support the person who supports you if they get sick.
#WeCanHealTogether
SENIORS AND OLDER COUPLES LIVING ALONE: GET READY TO QUARANTINE YOURSELF
- If you are over 80, have COPD, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, severe heart or kidney failure, quarantine yourself.
- If you are over 60, it is important to stay away from crowded places, even if there is not a full quarantine.
- If you take regular medication, make sure you have at least one month’s supply at home
- If you develop a fever or cough, seek medical advice, do not go to hospital immediately if you have the opportunity to be examined at home.
- If you develop shortness of breath, contact the nearest health facility.
- It may be safest to stay at home unless you are seriously ill, both for your own health and to protect public health by preventing the spread of the disease.
- However, if you develop symptoms such as shortness of breath, frequent breathing, chest pain, bruising, confusion, go to hospital immediately.
- If you do become ill, a level of isolation is of course necessary, but do not stay at home alone, make sure someone is supervising and monitoring you.
- It is important not to use public transportation unless absolutely necessary.
- Take precautions to have your shopping brought home. If necessary, get help from your family and neighbors.
- Evaluate whether you can get service from places that offer home delivery services.
- If you need to go to the hospital to see a doctor, do not use public transportation. Inform during the appointment that you may be contagious, wear a mask.
WHAT SHOULD FAMILY MEMBERS AND CAREGIVERS OF ELDERLY DO?
- Even if you are not sick, you may be a virus carrier. Keep this in mind.
- If you are in the same house with your elderly person, spend as much time as possible in different parts of the house, pay attention to the cleanliness of common places.
- If there is a caregiver taking care of your elderly person, be sure to inform them about this disease and precautions. Ensure that they protect themselves and check that they take the necessary precautions regularly.
- Think about how to take precautions and how people such as cleaners, shopkeepers’ apprentices, motor-couriers who enter and leave your elderly people’s homes, or even if they do not enter, who enter the contact distance through the door, can be carriers.
- Warn and supervise your elderly people to wash their hands carefully after door-to-door contact.
- If they do not know how, teach them how to use technology such as smartphones, for example, to make video calls and access some basic services online.
- Remember to have a plan B for who will take care of your elderly person in case you or the caregiver becomes ill.
HEALTH WORKERS: THIS IS A MOBILIZATION
- Make sure you protect yourself first and take every precaution.
- Be ready to serve your patients at home as much as possible, or if this is not possible, by telephone or tele-medicine.
- Call your elderly patients with chronic problems and their relatives, whom you follow regularly, and warn and inform them about quarantine.
- Inform the elderly in your immediate neighborhood about coronavirus and quarantine, even if they are not your patients.
- Nursing homes and care homes for the elderly, where the risk of the outbreak spreading is the highest, should prepare themselves for internal quarantine. There should be separation of sick and non-sick elderly people, as well as healthcare professionals who care for sick elderly people.
- Municipalities and health departments should reinforce home care teams for the elderly and warn them to pay utmost attention to home quarantine conditions.