ELDERLY RIGHTS & MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION HELD ELDERLY CARE TRAINING

The Association of Elderly Care & Mental Health organised a three-day Elderly Care Course at the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Commerce in Nicosia, between Monday 4 and Wednesday 6 July, 2022.

About 40 participants took part, including municipal health/aged care workers, public and private care home workers, nurses, representatives of the Social Services Department, and relatives of elderly. The course included 20 topics under the headings of common diseases and care in old age, physical care, and mental health needs in old age.

The free course aimed to develop the knowledge and skills of workers in the care sector, to improve elderly care services. Participants and instructors discussed care practices and challenges in the sector, as well as practicing meditation and mindfulness techniques as part of learning about strategies to cope with the burden of caring for elderly. The training was given by Dr. Ayşe Aydındoğmuş, Dr. Hazel Şahin Tarım, Asst. Assoc. Dr. Samin Esmaeilzadeh, Exp. Nurse Laden Serinsu, Assoc. Dr. Gülten Sucu Dağ, Assist. Assoc. Dr. Asiye Yeter Başaran, and Assist. Assoc. Dr. Handan Sezgin.

Prof. Dr. Hatice Jenkins, Chairperson of the Association for Elderly Rights and Mental Health, expressed her happiness at the successful completion of the training and said: “When we established our association, the first thing we did was to identify the problems in the field of elderly care and develop a project to solve these problems. Fortunately, we have developed a training program that will meet the need for education in the field of elderly care, which is one of the biggest problems, and we have started to offer it with great participation.”

Project Coordinator Dr. Ayşe Aydındoğmuş said they received great feedback from the participants. She added: “One unplanned and pleasing result we had from the training was that we brought together different people and different stakeholders from the aged care sector, and created an environment for them communicate.”

The Association for Elderly Rights and Mental Health will also organize a “Care Home Management” training program specifically targeting nursing home owners and managers, on 28 and 29 July, 2022. Details will soon be announced on the Association’s social media accounts and website