Development of health communication for the benefit of older adults

Abstract

Health promotion and health awareness are new concepts of Public Health that mainly focus on preventing the prevalence of certain diseases. This study aims to use health promotion and awareness as part of public health for the benefit of older adults for being considered a vulnerable group. A 4 months’ internship with the NGO IDRAAC (Ashrafieh, Lebanon) allowed the intern to accomplish the desired objectives of increasing awareness regarding ageing process and improve the quality of life of older adults. The chosen public health organization IDRAAC searches to treat, serve, advocate and spread awareness regarding mental health conditions. 207 hours spent in this internship have been divided between two projects one including the health promotion part of the TecMed and the other including a training related to the Alzheimer’s patients and the Communication with older persons. Two study designs were used among this study. The systematic review was implemented based on secondary data collected form the literature in the health promotion part. As for the pre-experimental study design, it was applied based on pre and post assessment following the intervention in Alzheimer’s and Communication training. The subjects of care in this study not only involves older adults but their surroundings, caregivers, family members, friends and government were also targeted. Results showed that the health promotion campaign met the goals and increase in knowledge, attitude and behavior was detected following the Alzheimer’s and Communication training. Participants’ knowledge and attitude improved after the training, while their behavior did not significantly change. However, some limitations and challenges have been faced due to the current pandemic and recurrent lockdowns. This study allowed the intern to experience and develop many skills and to be engaged in a professional research study.