Care and help are on way for the elderly in the state.
On Tuesday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, began training 57 youths under Shravan Kumar Yojana, a scheme it rolled out last year to create a young army of caregivers for the geriatric (elderly) population.
While last year around 40 people were given a daylong training on how to take care of the elderly, AIIMS-Patna this year has decided to train young caregivers for two months before posting them in clinical departments such as medicine and surgery among others. The aim is to inculcate basic clinical skills in them to take care of the aged population.
The course co-ordinator of the Shravan Kumar Yojana at AIIMS-Patna, Dr Anil Kumar, said: "The daylong training of the youths last year could not equip them with the skill set required to take care of the elderly. Training the caregivers on how to check blood pressure, sugar level in blood among other things in a day is impossible. That is why we have extended the training period to two months. The best thing is that we will ensure they are posted in various clinical departments so that they learn the skills in a better way."
"The idea behind giving clinical postings to the Shravan Kumars (youths trained under the Shravan Kumar Yojana scheme are basically called as Shravan Kumar by AIIMS-Patna) is that they would be able to judge the initial symptoms of various diseases and would be able to provide the basic medical aid on time which would help in saving the life of the elderly."
The doctor added: "For example, diabetes is a very common ailment among old people. Taking too much medicine and skipping meals can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level)."
According to the AIIMS-Patna doctors, the caregivers would be trained on how to check blood pressure, how to do use glucometer to check blood sugar, provide basic medical aid such as how to apply a bandage, push an injection and provide primary treatment in case of medical emergencies among others.
AIIMS-Patna will also get a consent letter signed by the youths being trained under its Shravan Kumar Yojana. "The consent letter would say that the youths would identify the number of elderly people in their respective communities. It would be their responsibility to take care of at least 10 to 20 elderly people from their community. We are basically training 10 and 12 passouts," said Anil.
Those who received training under the Shravan Kumar Yojana seemed contended.
Naveen Kumar Anuj, a 25-year-old from Mohanpura village in Maner block, who received training at AIIMS-Patna, said on Tuesday: "I was inspired to take up the training programme because around two months ago, an elderly person died in my village due to high blood pressure complications. The doctor in the private hospital had told this to us where we had taken that elderly person. Then, I realised that had I known basic clinical skills, I could have extended any help to the elderly person which could save his life."
