How to ensure the well-being of the elderly?

Colombia is undergoing a transition from a young population to a rapidly aging population. According to DANE information and the analysis contained in Decree 681 of 2022 on the State Policy on Old Age and Aging for 2022-2031, over the past 30 years, the population of Colombia has been aging at an accelerated rate compared to the demographic structures that existed in the early and early years . middle ages of the 20th century.

Between 2011 and 2021, seniors doubled their participation nationwide with a 51.5% increase. Due to this growth, Colombia is taking some steps to meet the needs of this population, including the ratification of the “Inter-American Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Older Persons”.

Given this environment, Pamela Diaz, CEO of Versania Senior, assures that “Colombia is in the process of recognizing that older people have special needs beyond their own and exclusive health, such as social health services for them and their families.”. For this reason, Pamela offers several recommendations to understand how the well-being of these older people can be guaranteed.

HEAR

In many cases, we automatically interact with older people without relying on their opinions or preferences. We come to your attention with biased procedures that do not adapt to your requirements and exclude a more than reasonable process in which your tastes, desires and needs are analyzed. In other words, as a family, we decide what is best for those who have the ability and the right to make decisions about meeting their needs without listening to them.

ACCOMPANY

Unfortunately, older people experience loneliness as a consequence of the limitations that time faces. Problems with the health, mobility, personal and professional development of their relatives, among other things, cause long periods of loneliness that affect them emotionally and sometimes lead to mental health problems. By sharing some of our time with them, helping them to communicate, we will surely strengthen their environment and prevent changes in attitude and physical changes.

FEED IN A SPECIALIZED WAY

At this stage in life, combining a diet designed to meet basic nutritional needs with attention to taste will help both maintain greater personal autonomy and a higher quality of life, as well as create a sense of happiness in older adults. Pathologies will largely determine the basic parameters of this diet and will no doubt encourage us to include a diet low in salt, high in protein and rich in fruits and vegetables.

ACTIVATE YOUR BODY, MIND AND STAY ACTIVE.

While the type of activity offered to seniors should be evaluated, it is important that they remain active, at least through daily walks or stretching exercises. Also have psychological support to manage your emotions and manage aspects such as the transition from work to retirement or retirement, loneliness, etc. In addition, promote activities such as meeting friends, board games, painting or dancing.

GO TO SPECIALIZED CARE

Professional and specialized care for the elderly certainly creates a care environment that complements and/or replaces family care. That is why Versania Senior at Altos de Yerbabuena in Chia Cundinamarca consider it important to use spaces designed and prepared specifically for the needs of this population, making the most of the specialized services they offer, their network of professionals and their care strategies aimed at providing well-being and happiness of older people and their families.

BREAKING STEREOTYPES

Lack of knowledge sometimes leads us to create preconceived notions about what aging is and what it entails, and especially about what surrounds residential care resources for assisted or dependent older people.

Familiarity with and analysis of the processes of care in the centers will undoubtedly help to change these preconceived notions. This will allow us to understand the aging process in a different way and move from ideas that place this moment of life in an environment of resignation and lack of motivation, to ideas that allow us to understand it as a new stage full of possibilities. .

“To live in a quiet, pleasant public environment, designed in such a way that the entire environment is accessible, in which everything is dedicated to them, where they are cared for in a specialized way by highly qualified professionals and where they are in the center of attention, without a doubt This is the best environment where we everyone would like to enjoy this new phase of life.” noted Pamela Diaz, CEO of Versania.