Letters | As Hong Kong battles coronavirus, the elderly should never walk alone
- Many senior citizens are afraid to go out without masks, which leads to all sorts of other problems affecting their daily lives and their access to health care. Their already weak support system has become even more fragile than before
Most elderly people do not have enough masks and, because of the media’s hyper-focus on mask-wearing, they tend to become very stressed.
Many senior citizens are afraid to go out without masks, which leads to all sorts of other problems affecting their daily lives, their access to health care and medicine, and their emotional balance. Their already weak support system has become even more fragile than before. Our elderly suicide management cases have doubled compared to a year ago.
Senior Citizen Home Safety Association has launched a special campaign to provide emergency support to these elderly people struggling alone. Our professional nurse/social worker teams are now calling thousands of elderly people in order of priority and risk level to carry out a holistic assessment of their overall condition.
Our teams can arrange for services such as medication refills, household cleaning and hygiene supplies delivery for those in need. We will also provide emotional counselling and psychiatric referrals where necessary.
It is very important that the elderly do not get left behind or short-changed in this critical time. We are doing our best but we also urge the public to pay more attention to elderly people in their circle or neighbourhood.