Médecins du Monde remains constantly at the side of the most vulnerable elderly in Greece.
The United Nations theme for this year’s International Day for Older Persons is dedicated to the Resilience of Older Women in a Changing World.
There is no doubt that the Covid19 pandemic has significantly increased existing inequalities. Within the last three years, the socio-economic, environmental, health and climate impacts on the lives of older people have multiplied, especially for older women, who constitute the majority of the world’s seniors.
In Greece, older people face increased psychosocial needs and a higher risk of isolation, illness and poverty.
In the current extremely difficult period, older people are exposed to the risk of energy poverty and therefore of reduced spending on prevention and good health forecasting.
Médecins du Monde, from the early years of the economic recession until today, has been implementing innovative actions for the care and promotion of the Wellbeing and Mental Health of elderly people.
With the help of the TIMA Charitable Foundation and further with the significant support of The Hellenic Initiative of Canada, they continue to implement the Substantive Intervention for Older Persons 60+ program.
Emergency Intervention for Vulnerable People 60+
Effective intervention for older people is based on three pillars of action: home help with door-to-door visits, distance counselling and psychosocial support and the Online Companionship programme. The MdM team carried out house-to-house visits throughout the programme to provide free pharmaceutical assistance to the elderly through the execution of e-prescriptions in cooperation and following appropriate referral from the municipal social services, while maintaining in each case remote communication with the beneficiaries.
MdM’s health and psychosocial support professionals were available daily for remote counselling and support through the systematic use of new telecommunication tools, on which beneficiaries had been trained during the previous year.
The Online Companionship is a social innovation program, which aims to reduce as much as possible the feeling of loneliness experienced by a large part of the elderly part of the Greek population. For this reason, the only requirement for joining this programme is loneliness and not financial status.
- 1,000 older people benefited from psychosocial support and medical care services
- 1,550 home visits
- 1,500 prescriptions were covered
- 3,000 pharmaceutical items delivered.
- 1,000 medical consultations
- 1,000 medical consultations
- 100 physical exercise sessions with a professional physiotherapist
The implementation of the project is funded by The Hellenic Initiative of Canada
