CIVIL SOCIETY: 269 PRACTICES
Mission ANTHROPOS is a Greek nonprofit, Non Governmental Organisation, founded in 2010 with the aim to provide free and without discrimination medical support to vulnerable people, who do not have access to the NHS.
Read more: www.missionanthropos.com
The program aims at improving the everyday life and its overall quality of senior citizens residing permanently in Non-Profit Care Homes for the Elderly. This is achieved firstly through regular digital meetings between seniors and high-school students, and secondly through empowerment and training of their caregivers by members of the Postgraduate Program of the Medical School “Physiology of Aging and Geriatric Syndromes” of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
The program focuses on seniors residing in five (5) Non-Profit Care Homes for the Elderly (four in Attica and one in Cyclades), as well as their caregivers and administrative staff.
The program started in November 2021 and completed in December 2022.
The program “Improving the life of Seniors” combines recreation and socialization for seniors residing in non-profit care homes as well as the training and empowerment of caregivers about geriatric syndromes.
The program is based on a series of initiatives with high-school students that are being implemented for the last four years, and as a continuation of a previous program, "We Care - For the elderly" (2018). During the program, twenty-nine (29) High-school students and four (4) volunteers of the organization kept company to the seniors digitally for a period of six months, in an effort to counter the loneliness and isolation of seniors who are isolated due to COVID regulations. The students, separated into groups, they prepared various activities, games and songs to entertain the seniors and to offer them different stimuli.
Meanwhile, realizing the existing and ongoing need for support and training of the caregivers of seniors in non-profit care homes, in collaboration with the Post Graduate Program “Physiology of Aging and Geriatric Syndromes” of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the caregivers and staff attended a series of seminars on the prevention and treatment of geriatric syndromes. The ultimate goal is the overall improvement of the quality of life of seniors in their daily care. The seminars were conducted by the academic professors with the assistance of four postgraduate students, who combined their academic knowledge with the service to the community (service learning).
The aftermath of the seminars was documented in a Good Geriatric Practices Guideline, based on the topics discussed in the seminars, and is available online for all. Additionally in order to sustain the results of the program, the NKUA donated to the care homes special equipment and NFIS (e.g.gloves), to help the caregivers in their daily tasks.
According to the Social Impact study conducted using SROI methodology, the program “Improving the life of seniors” presented an index ratio 5.22:1, meaning that for every 1 € that was invested in the program created 5.22€ of social value.
As it is eviden in the findings, the seniors mentioned that the program positively affected their well-being in multiple ways, creating:
As for the 70 caregivers from the NPCHE that participated in the program, 64,29% of them participated in the study, and experienced changes such as:
High-school student volunteers claimed they learned about the world of seniors, resulting in the positive value of creating an intergenerational bond. The main changes that occurred concern:
The main change for the students and the academic staff of the PGP is concerning the acquisition of awareness of the elderly as well as of their caregivers (100%).
Moreover, according to the analysis of the questionnaires that the caregivers filled before and after each seminar, the positive impact of the program is evident. The percentage of caregivers that increased their confidence levels on certain topics, and in the majority of the theoretical questions, there is an improvement in the percentage of correct answers.
In addition, by the end of the program, students and academic teachers of the Postgraduate program created a Good Geriatric Practices Guideline for the caregivers of Non-Profit Care homes, based on the seminars they provided. This is expected to be a point of reference and to have an impact beyond the end of the program, as a source of inspiration for implementing pan-hellenic programs.
The program took place entirely online, with participants from the five long-term Care Units for the Elderly situated in Attica (Moschato, Nea Ionia, New Philadelphia, Nea Smyrni) and Cyclades (Hermoupoli).
The program is implemented in collaboration with the Postgraduate Program of the Medical School of the University of Athens, “Physiology of Aging and Geriatric Syndromes”, in the context of Open Labs of the European Civic University – CIVIS. CIVIS is an alliance of 11 European Universities, CIVIS is the alliance of 11 European Universities, aiming at improving expertise and increasing competitiveness of European higher education; Open Labs offer to members of the academic circle the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience to find innovative solutions to problems concerning the local community.
The program was conducted with the participation of 5 Non-Profit Care Homes for the Elderly.
The smoothly implementation of the program was monitored by the Program Manager with the help and overall supervision of the Programs Coordinator, who worked closely with the academic staff of the Postgraduate Program.
The thirty-seven (37) volunteers were really important for the implementation of the program. In total took part twenty-nine (29) students, four (4) volunteers of the organization and four (4) postgraduate students, whose contribution was decisive for the implementation of the program.
