Healthy women and girls, health communities: Post COVID-19 and beyond
Dr Yonette Thomas — Strategic Advisor for Health of Women & Girls to the Women’s Economic Imperative and Associate Editor for Women and Girls, Cities & Health
Yonette is a globally acknowledged thought leader, urban health champion, and an advocate for valuing the health of women and girls as an economic imperative. She founded Borjoner International and Strategic Transitions to influence the progress, health, and wellbeing of individuals and communities across the world. As a founding board member of Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI), she leads the organization’s focus on the economic valuation of the health of women and girls. Her work as global advisor for the Centre for Urban Health and Development within the Asian Institute of Poverty Alleviation (CUHD-AIPA) extends her focus on the global south and the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals in this last decade. She is the Associate Editor for Women and Girls for Cities & Health.
Download Dr Thomas’s presentation.
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This presentation was made for European Public Health Week by The University of Manchester’s Master of Public Health programme in partnership with the Urban Public Health section of the European Public Health Association.
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European Public Health Week
This presentation took place on Friday 15th May 2020, and the theme for the day was “Grow old, grow healthy”.
Our societies are ageing, with an increasing portion of the population being aged 65 and older. People are living longer, though not always in good health. Healthy ageing is about age-friendly environments and integrated delivery of long-term care. It’s also about identifying older people as active contributors to society rather than patients. How do you promote healthy ageing?
Key messages
1. ‘Older people are at highest risk from COVID-19, but all must act to prevent community spread.’ — Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when older people are encouraged to stay at home, regular, moderate physical activity can help to maintain muscle strength and cognitive function, reduce anxiety and depression, and prevent disease.
3. ‘I am reminding governments and authorities that all communities must be supported to deliver interventions to ensure older people have what they need. All older people should be treated with respect and dignity during these times. Remember, we leave no one behind.’ — Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
4. Healthy ageing is an important prerequisite for employment, volunteering, knowledge sharing and economic spending, through which older people are an asset to society.
5. Actions to combat loneliness, social isolation and social exclusion in older people include fostering intergenerational relations, positive media reporting about this age group, access to social services by phone and training in the use of technology.
6. Older people are experts on their needs and what is important to them. To provide person- centred integrated care, older people must actively be involved in the decision making about their health and social services.
7. Nurses and support workers are key health professionals who support and care for older people. It is vital that these workers are protected from COVID-19 through adequate training, protective equipment and up to date information on how to recognise and respond to the symptoms of COVID-19.
Other facts and figures
· Many informal care workers provide care for older people and are often left unprotected. It is important that we make personal protective equipment available for these workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
· Advanced age should not by itself be a criterion for excluding patients from specialized hospital units.
· During the coronavirus outbreak, older people might experience an understandable slowing down in the discharge from acute care to rehabilitation/post-acute care units. This generates prolonged hospital stays with increased risk of iatrogenic consequences. We should make all the necessary efforts for the patients discharged from acute care units and probably use more home care facilities for rehabilitation purposes.
· Digital devices can facilitate social care and support to older and disabled people, helping health workers and social workers to address priority conditions including mobility limitations, vision and hearing loss, depressive symptoms, and rehabilitation of older survivors of COVID-19.
· If older people reach a point where they can no longer care for themselves and access to rehabilitation without support and assistance, access to good-quality long-term care is essential for such people to maintain their functional ability, enjoy basic human rights and live with dignity.
· Health-promotion and disease-prevention measures to tackle the common risk factors for non-communicable diseases can contribute greatly to healthy ageing. For example, the European Region has the highest alcohol consumption in the world. The average in the European Union, almost 3 drinks per person per day, is more than double the world average. Tobacco consumption is also relatively high in many European countries.
· Loneliness, social isolation and social exclusion are risk factors of ill health among older people, in particular in the absence of support from family networks.
· Lack of assistive products and rehabilitation services can mean older people are isolated and excluded from work, family and community life with increased expenses leading to poverty.
· There are currently 2.5 times more women than men among the people aged 85 years and over in the WHO European Region.
· The prevention of communicable diseases and health education and literacy are important tools to empower older people.
· By 2050, 80% of older people will be living in low- and middle- income countries.
· Urban areas with public space, walking circuits, and pedestrian paths can contribute to improved well-being, especially in older people.
Further Resources
Healthy Ageing resources by the WHO Regional Office for Europe: http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/healthy-ageing
Supporting older people during the COVID-19 pandemic is everyone’s business (Press briefing with Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe): http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/4/supporting-older-people-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-is- everyones-business
European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing by the European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/home_en
Statement from the European Geriatric Medicine Society on the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.eugms.org/news/read/article/489.html
Global strategy and actin plan on ageing and health: https://www.who.int/ageing/global-strategy/en/
World report on ageing and health: https://www.who.int/ageing/events/world-report-2015- launch/en/
