Training (Certificate Course)
Key projections
- 98 million older persons in 2011
- 143 million older persons by 2020
- 51% of the grey population are women
- 270% increase in population between 60-80 years (2006-2050)
- 500% increase in population over 80 years (2006-2050)
- 7.5% of world’s older population in India
Some facts
- Traditional joint family system is fast disappearing from cities/towns and villages
- 70+ common ailments are incontinence, dementia, lack of mobility
Advancement of age results in physiological changes such as dependence for activities of daily living, reduced eye sight, hearing, strength/stamina.
In the urban context, senior citizens’ facilities in several metro and non-metro cities continue to demonstrate high standards of quality services and commercial success of such projects. In fact, such elder facilities are increasingly being viewed by not only the urban upper class but also by elderly and their family from other classes as essential “life lines” for meeting their critical need viz. ageing with dignity and being active for as long as possible, first independently and thereafter with various levels of support during their natural ageing process. Care giving is only next to shelter in in terms of priority for all elderly and gains increasing importance with advancing age. In the Indian context, the first response of a family to an elderly living with the family is to find some sort of domestic help to address this need. Frustration at individual and family level in finding adequately trained care givers for the elderly is a widespread common occurrence. Attempts at substituting trained care givers with readily available help in the market from trained nurses, only adds to their frustration and is also prohibitive in terms of cost.
Following an assessment of need during city-surveys, basic training through HI Refresher Course for Caregivers to around 200 caregivers from Old Age Homes in 20 cities is in progress and will be completed by January 2011. HI Refresher Courses have been/will be conducted at Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Chennai, Bangalore & Hyderabad.
A pilot Training of Trainers (ToT) Course in Bhopal is aimed at building a cadre of trainers in different cities, who will in collaboration with HI, use their individual old age home as a training hub for training family and domestic caregivers from among the local community around their respective Homes. This HI-Old Age Home-Caregivers collaborative initiative with multiplier effect is expected to make available and give access to HI to a vast network of low-cost service-hubs for eldercare and training operating out of existing old age homes with a large trained cadre of caregivers who can respond to needs of the local context (local cultural diversity and customised individual needs) of elders and their families across 20 cities.
