Summary of activities for everyone to talk about health for the elderly

This series of "Talk about Elderly Health" covered a total of 1,276 elderly people over 60 years old in 12 communities in 3 streets in the jurisdiction, collected 912 valid health demand questionnaires, implemented 7 targeted convenience health services, solved 32 common health confusions of the elderly, and scored 94.7 points in the elderly satisfaction survey. The core effect is that the old health science popularization in the past has finally become a real service that the elderly can understand, touch and use.

Don't tell me, we had many internal quarrels when preparing for this event. Xiao Zhou, who is in charge of administration, thinks that it is enough to follow the old path, print thousands of health manuals, find doctors from tertiary hospitals to give two big lectures, and take some photos to leave a mark. The cost is low and the assessment indicators can be met. There is no need to bother. But Dr. Wang, a general practitioner stationed in the community, was the first to object. He said that he had attended the lecture last year. There were more than 200 elderly people sitting in the audience. The manual was thrown on the floor when the lecture was over. An old man with essential hypertension went back and took half of the pills according to the manual. He almost had a cerebral infarction and was sent to the emergency room. "What the old man wants is not general knowledge points, but answers that can be applied to himself. If you tell him a low-salt diet a hundred times, why not take the pickle jar he often eats and tell him that he can only eat a piece as big as a fingernail in one meal." ”

In the end, we made a compromise and did not hold a unified large-scale event, but split it into several forms based on the characteristics of the elderly in different communities: There are many elderly people living alone in the old community, so we arranged for staff to come to measure blood pressure and blood sugar, and check whether there are any anti-slip hazards at home. Last week, we installed bathroom handrails for Grandpa Liu, a 72-year-old elderly man who lives alone, and linked him to the online consultation number of the community hospital. After he fell once last winter, he did not dare to go out casually. Now he can send a message to the doctor at home to ask if he needs to change his antihypertensive medicine. The elderly in the resettlement community usually gather in the pavilion to play chess and chat, so we moved the consultation table to the edge of the pavilion to form a "Baba Tea Party". The doctor sat down and chatted with the elderly, and talked about health knowledge without making the elderly feel lectured.

Interestingly, we also encountered a lot of unexpected controversies during the event. A medical student who volunteered felt that health intervention for the elderly should strictly follow the guidelines, smoking should be discouraged, high-salt and high-fat foods should be completely avoided, and the amount of daily exercise should be limited to the number of heartbeats per minute to be qualified. But after following us for three days, she changed her mind. There was an 81-year-old man who had smoked dry cigarettes for more than 60 years. His lung function test showed no major problems except for some chronic bronchitis. He couldn't eat without taking two puffs a day. She no longer insisted on persuading the man to quit smoking. She only told him not to smoke in front of his grandchildren and to smoke less when his cough was severe. After all, when we provide health services for the elderly, the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of the elderly, not to fit them all into a standard template and become "health models", right?

Oh, by the way, this event also left a lot of regrets. A special session for early Alzheimer's disease screening was originally scheduled, but the notice was posted half a month in advance. As a result, less than half of the reserved seats came on the day. Many elderly people walk around when they see the "Alzheimer's Screening" sign. They either say, "My brain is working fine, why do I check for this?" or they feel that the free screening is definitely not accurate and insist on going to a big hospital to pay for the check. Later, when we talked with the community grid staff, we learned that many elderly people have a sense of shame about this disease. They feel that having this disease will cause trouble to their children and do not want others to know. Next time we conduct this kind of screening, we must first change the name to be gentler, and find a few elderly people who have already been screened to speak out in advance, otherwise no one will come even if the publicity is in place.

At the end of this event, Aunt Zhang from Yuquan Community gave me a handful of oranges grown at home. She said that when she was browsing short videos, she always saw antihypertensive drugs and calcium tablets cannot be taken together. She stopped taking calcium tablets for three months, and her legs cramped so much that she could not sleep in the middle of the night. After asking the doctor this time, she found out that there was no conflict at all, and she finally dared to take it with confidence. To be honest, I have been working on community elderly health for three years, and I am happier than receiving any commendation at this time. Many people always think that elderly health work is difficult. The elderly are disobedient and believe in fake science. In fact, this is not true at all. As long as you are willing to think about the problem from their perspective, don't preach or be perfunctory, they are more willing to listen than anyone else.

The health of the elderly is not something that can be solved once and for all through one activity. We have compiled the more than 900 demands collected this time into a ledger, and will conduct a small-scale Q&A session every quarter. Usually, grid members will also ask about the health of the elderly when they visit their homes. After all, constant companionship is the best health guarantee for the elderly.