MUMBAI: “The days seem to last too long.” “I want someone to just be with me.” “I find myself waiting for people to call more than ever before.”
An increasing sense of despondency and fractured communication with family members were among the chief feelings conveyed by senior citizens in a recent nationwide survey titled ‘
The Silent Tormentor
—Covid-19 and the elderly’ released by the NGO
HelpAge India
on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15. In the report, over 60% said the risk of elders suffering abuse had increased during the pandemic.
Conducted through telephonic interviews in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai in April and May, the survey aimed to understand the toll of the pandemic on senior citizens and included not only the voices of 3,000 elders living in both households and old-age homes, but also over 500 caregivers, including family members, nurses and old-age home attendants.
More than half the elderly interviewees had family members who ‘worked/studied from home’ during the lockdown, but nearly a third of them felt alienated despite the proximity. Almost six out of 10 elderly respondents reported their daily routine was getting affected by the WFH or study-from-home set-ups of their family members.
Dr Arun John of The Vandrevala Foundation said lockdown-induced claustrophobia translated into a number of calls from senior citizens on their mental health helpline, particularly between the first wave and the second wave of Covid-19. “Some asked if they should write a will. Some said they didn’t know if they would be able to survive the second wave,” said 67-year-old Dr John, who himself felt boxed in by protective kids who didn’t let him step out during the recent lockdown.
Rohit Prasad, CEO, HelpAge India, said while the focus has been on the physical health of the elderly, “few have noticed the dreadful impact the pandemic was having on their mental health and well-being.” A recent news report mentioned the total number of calls received by Elderline, the new central-government-led helpline, had increased from 475 calls on May 17 to 20,000 on June 3. Many of these were about health and emotional issues. In the HelpAge India survey, too, emotional abuse (60.1%) emerged as the main form of abuse, followed by physical abuse (58.6%). Acknowledging this increase in verbal abuse, the study attributed it to the pressures of working from home or the impact of job losses and the responsibility on caregivers. In fact, salary cuts and job losses, the survey found, made caretaking more challenging for family members. In old age homes, nearly 44% of the respondents said the staff shortage was a source of stress.
“What was disturbing was the misinformation about vaccination most elders had,” said Prakash Borgaonkar, head, Maharashtra & Goa, HelpAge India. He said over 41.8% of the respondents expressed unawareness of any vaccines. Delhi reported the maximum percentage of respondents believing the vaccine was not really important for them (22.6%), while another 23.8% reported not knowing about it. Almost 40% respondents who had not got the second dose in Bengaluru said they feared more side-effects, while 22.2% of such respondents in Mumbai stated “there is no such thing as Corona”.
Prasad underlined the need for the government, community and private sector to work together to bring in elder-friendly policies and programmes.
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