Reviving the Aged Community, by Youth for Seniors and Youthful Seniors
Mei-Ju Chen, head of STUST Department of Senior Welfare and Services and project team leader of USR team at STUST realized, as early as ten years ago, that the care of the aged would become a social dilemma, especially the urban-rural disparity in the allocation of care resources. In her efforts to improve the situation, she became involved in the University Social Responsibility (hereafter referred to as USR) project to bring in various expertise to collaborate with local resources, to help local pupils watch over and care for local elderly, to enable local youths to implement social responsibility, all to bridge the cross-generational gap to create a harmonious atmosphere to achieve an age-friendly community.
The senior labor force in noiseless communities
When we first arrived at the community, most of the residents we saw were elderly and a handful of schoolchildren. To earn their livelihoods, the elderly sits all day on non-ergonomic low stools for long hours with minimal pay, either shucking oyster in reticent and isolated Village, or harvesting and packing tomatoes in indigent Village. With only remotely accessible medical care and rarely nutritionally balanced meals, everyday activities are often affected by prevalent joint deformities, chronic metabolic conditions, and mild dementia.
Downshifted gears gradually come to life again
Cross-departmental and cross-specialty collaboration at STUST was launched by Youth for Seniors, an autonomous teacher-student initiative at the STUST Department of Senior Welfare and Services, to found the USR team with the sole purpose of bringing passion into care for the aged in the community, gaining not only the approval of the elderly but also bringing life back into the community. By applying academia and working alongside local and social resources, a cross-generational co-operative climate has been created in the community to strive for the common good and reap the benefits together. For example, at the Double Fifth Festival, the project team organized traditional activities towards cross-generational interaction in which the aged instructed the young on making sticky rice dumplings, and the young in return served tea ceremoniously to the aged, enabling amity between generations. Programs like this have brought new sensation and drive for the elderly who have otherwise stopped planning their everyday lives, akin to rusty machinery brought once more to life with new motor oil. This serves to establish a new model for community senior care.
Peaceful lives stirred by sudden home accidents and dementia onset
There are numerous fall hazards in every home. Along with deterioration of bodily function by advancing age, walking becomes more difficult and unstable, and the fear of falling has confined the elderly at home, leading to inactivity, which accelerates muscle loss – this vicious cycle, together with lack of social stimulation elevates incidents of falls, ill health, and dementia. Studies indicate that one-third of accidents occur at home, underlining the importance of home environment safety. When we go into the community, we would hear from time to time the sudden news of some elderly individuals hospitalized after a fall. Collaborating with village chiefs, our project leaders and assistants took students to visit individual homes to survey and to promote home environment safety. In doing so, we found that most floorings were tiles and granites. While such floors are attractive and easy to clean, their smoothness and rigidity, however, make a high risk of falls in the elderly. Furthermore, to address certain behavioral problems in the elderly, our project team organized a community obstacle-course event as part of the initiative towards a dementia-friendly community, to help people better understand dementia and to address misconceptions and discriminations against dementia. An amusing incident occurred at the event where one particular elderly individual went off-script at almost every course, but the Youth for Seniors students in charge of the stations were trained well beforehand and dealt with the situation appropriately. At the same time, has worked with local social services to set up a dementia care service base for local seniors, which is also in line with the concept of building an age-friendly community.
Nutrition issues in Eating Leftovers
We often hear the elderly in the community describe their practice of only cooking once for the entire three meals of the day, even taking leftovers from the day before, and this made us very concerned about their nutrition intake and food safety. Therefore has organized local schoolchildren in the role of “little care workers” and Youth for Seniors in intercollegiate collaboration with KMU for oral health assessment programs, to train students in ways to interact with seniors and to practice oral cleaning and oral exercises to promote care, respect and health safeguard for the elderly.
USR courses at STUST are taught by industry experts and offer students on-site experience and skills training with real-life applications in the framework of communities to enhance practical skills and to train students to explore the community’s needs and challenges. By partaking in on-site activities, students’ logical thinking is steered towards practical aspects to come up with solutions more practical and feasible. The courses also encourage students to enter various contests with products from the courses to broaden their horizons, increase self-confidence, and to expand their sense of achievement.
The collaboration of Youth for Seniors and the elderly in the community has inspired new life and energy to break the old age myth and to build an aged society with smiles and happiness.
The senior labor force in noiseless communities
When we first arrived at the community, most of the residents we saw were elderly and a handful of schoolchildren. To earn their livelihoods, the elderly sits all day on non-ergonomic low stools for long hours with minimal pay, either shucking oyster in reticent and isolated
Downshifted gears gradually come to life again
Cross-departmental and cross-specialty collaboration at STUST was launched by Youth for Seniors, an autonomous teacher-student initiative at the STUST Department of Senior Welfare and Services, to found the USR
Peaceful lives stirred by sudden home accidents and dementia onset
There are numerous fall hazards in every home. Along with deterioration of bodily function by advancing age, walking becomes more difficult and unstable, and the fear of falling has confined the elderly at home, leading to inactivity, which accelerates muscle loss – this vicious cycle, together with lack of social stimulation elevates incidents of falls, ill health, and dementia. Studies indicate that one-third of accidents occur at home, underlining the importance of home environment safety. When we go into the community, we would hear from time to time the sudden news of some elderly individuals hospitalized after a fall. Collaborating with village chiefs, our project leaders and assistants took students to visit individual homes to survey and to promote home environment safety. In doing so, we found that most floorings were tiles and granites. While such floors are attractive and easy to clean, their smoothness and rigidity, however, make a high risk of falls in the elderly. Furthermore, to address certain behavioral problems in the elderly, our project team organized a community obstacle-course event as part of the initiative towards a dementia-friendly community, to help people better understand dementia and to address misconceptions and discriminations against dementia. An amusing incident occurred at the event where one particular elderly individual went off-script at almost every course, but the Youth for Seniors students in charge of the stations were trained well beforehand and dealt with the situation appropriately. At the same time,
Nutrition issues in Eating Leftovers
We often hear the elderly in the community describe their practice of only cooking once for the entire three meals of the day, even taking leftovers from the day before, and this made us very concerned about their nutrition intake and food safety. Therefore
USR courses at STUST are taught by industry experts and offer students on-site experience and skills training with real-life applications in the framework of communities to enhance practical skills and to train students to explore the community’s needs and challenges. By partaking in on-site activities, students’ logical thinking is steered towards practical aspects to come up with solutions more practical and feasible. The courses also encourage students to enter various contests with products from the courses to broaden their horizons, increase self-confidence, and to expand their sense of achievement.
The collaboration of Youth for Seniors and the elderly in the community has inspired new life and energy to break the old age myth and to build an aged society with smiles and happiness.
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University characteristic Expansion Stage Project
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Tainan City
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Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
738votes
Further reading
Measures for Leaving a Message to Enter the Draw for the Live Streaming of the Opening Ceremony
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Event Period
From 13:00 to 14:00 on December 12 (Saturday), 2020
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Event Measures
Log in to your personal Facebook or Google account to proceed with leaving a message; each account with a successful message of #2020usrexpo left before the end of the live streaming of the opening ceremony will have an opportunity to enter the draw, and each account is restricted to winning the prize once only.
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List of Winners
On December 14 (Monday), 2020, the list of winners will be announced on the event official website https://2020usrexpo.org/) Announcement of the list of winners
Event Prize Content
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1st Prize
“Huei Yeh” Power Extreme Massage Gun 1 winner
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2nd Prize
Nestle Dolce Gusto Genio 2 1 winner
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3rd Prize
KINYO Bluetooth 5.0 Wireless Speaker 2 winner
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4th Prize
7-11 Gift Voucher valued at NT$200 27 winner
Announcement of the list of winners
The various prizes are expected to be notified via email and also announced on the event official website on December 14 (Monday), please will the prize winners pay attention to the prize-winning information, and send back the relevant documents according to the notices & explanations; no separate notification will be issued.
Notices
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