Jamaica’s population is growing older which create increasing needs, one of which is the provision of long-term care services aimed to ensure that older adults can enjoy a high quality of life despite their limitations. Existing state-run institutions cannot meet the needs of older adults given the high prevalence of comorbidities and reliance on the care, support, and assistance of others (typically family members) and therefore the demand for services far outweighs the supply. Approximately 70% of older adults in Jamaica own their own homes and would prefer to remain there. However, the range of services available to facilitate aging in place is limited.
This project will aim to solve the problem of the lack of community-based long-term care options for older adults (60+) caused by a lack of awareness of the needs of older adults and the services they require, lack of skilled community-based care workers and lack of coordination between state-run services and community-based care providers.
It will accomplish this by the creation of a community based long term care services model and by implementing a series of community-based initiatives that will allow older adults to not only access information they need but also to actively participate in community life. This new model includes GIS mapping to identify socially, economically and medically vulnerable older adults in Jamaica, building community capacity/resource mobilization to meet the needs of vulnerable older adults, development of digital platforms to allow for greater access to information and dissemination of this information (registry and app of care givers and the services they offer and a registry and app focused on other services while piloting a model day center program in both urban and rural settings, creation of a support network and materials for home-based care providers and utilization of multimedia strategies to facilitate knowledge transfer.
The project will mainly focus on improving the ability of older adults to access information and key care services they require (both health and other home-based services). The model is deemed highly replicable to the rest of Jamaica and widely over the Caribbean region.
The target population is 15% of older adults in Jamaica (48,000 persons) especially those who may be unable to afford costly private long-term care services and who rely on the State, relatives, friends, and other persons in the community for assistance (180 day centre users, 600 geriatric health aide service users, 4800 viewers of videos and directories and 42,000 app and website users who receive home-based telecare services). These reflect minimum figures as persons are likely to benefit from more than one service.
The project is executed by the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre of The University of the West Indies through the following components:
The objective of this component is to increase stakeholder engagement and promote utilization of new health and support services for older adults and their caregivers. In this regard the Executing Agency will employ the services of a consultant to create a communications and awareness campaign aimed to promote the suite of products and services that are developed
The activities under this component are the development of a series of 10 videos which highlight common issues faced by older adults and their caregivers and possible ways of addressing them; design and printing of a “Directory of Services” for older adults and their caregivers and the creation of avenues that allow for increased stakeholder engagement as it relates to securing partnership agreements for other components of the project e.g., operation of the day centre and piloting the community geriatric health aide program.
The expected outputs of this component are: (i) Video series developed; (ii) Directory of services, and; (iii) Partnership agreements with stakeholders finalized.
The objective of this component is to develop a training program and pilot for a community-based geriatric health aide program and community day centre. Firstly, the Executing Agency will hire a consultant to develop the training manual for the Geriatric Health Aide Program and train community facilitators who will supervise students involved in the pilot. Next, activities related to the operation of two-day centres for older adults (one rural and one urban) will be the focus. One consultant will be employed to manage each of these facilities and two venues secured and retrofitted to create an age-friendly design.
The activities under this component are: (i) development of a training manual for the geriatric health aide program; (ii) training of community facilitators; (iii) rental of venue for trainings including meals, meal and transport provisions for students who will take part in the geriatric health aide pilot program; (iv) securing, retrofitting and furnishing venues for day center operations (two centers – one rural and one urban) to make them age-friendly. It is expected that the combination of these outputs will raise the standard of care provided to beneficiaries prior to the intervention.
The expected outputs of this component are: (i) Geriatric Health Aide Training Manual; (ii) Cadre of trained community facilitators; (iii) Report of pilot program, and; (iv) age-friendly day centers operational.
This component focuses on the technology innovations that underpin the overall project design. The purpose is to implement and assess the viability of the solution in reaching potential beneficiaries.
Under this component, the Executing Agency will work with GIS personnel as well as web and app designers. GIS personnel will assist in identifying vulnerable communities which will be the focus of the pilot interventions. The web and app developers will assist in designing digital platforms that host the registry of services for older adults and facilitate active interaction between service providers and end users, reducing information asymmetries in the process.
The expected outputs of this component are: (i) maps depicting communities and their resources; (ii) Database of service providers; (iii) Project webpage, and; (iv) Mobile app.