Ranga Raj Dhungana¹*, Biraj Dhungana² and Barsha Subedi³

¹Country Director, HASTI-Nepal (HASTI), Nepal
²Secretary, Nepal Science and Technology Research Center (NSTRC), Nepal
³Nursing Assistant, International Organization for Migration, Nepal

*Corresponding Author: Ranga Raj Dhungana, Country Director, HASTI-Nepal (HASTI), Nepal.

Received: November 30, 2021; Published: February 15, 20212

Abstract

Elderly age is the senior stage of life cycle among human beings that faces various mental problems if proper care is not provided to the 60+ senior citizens. We can reduce these problems by the transformation of skills and experience of senior citizens to mobilize the youths through Public-Private-Partnership (3-Ps) like Senior-citizen Community Development Program for the self-sustaining livelihood of senior citizens in Nepal. As per social tradition, elder members of a family are cared for by younger family members. These days, many youths migrate abroad to a foreign country mostly for employment. The migration of young adults creates challenges for caring and burdens the remaining women and children hindering their personal career development (Yadav, Volume 2, N0. 1, 2012). The government of Nepal has formulated a national policy, act, and regulations on aging and the problems of the elderly; however, we have not operated because of limited resources (Shrestha, 2013). Psychosis, alcohol dependence, dementia, and other disorders bring negative consequences to the mind amongst elderly people if proper care is not provided. As in other research, the prevalence of anxiety symptom cases was identified, ranged from 21.7 to 32.3 percent (Thapa DK, 2018, June). Therefore, we decided to survey to identify the elderly age problems and their solutions as an alternative option in Nepal. We used questionnaires and checklists for Household Survey (HS) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) respectively in 5 out of 77 districts and analyzed the collected information to identify an alternative option in 2019. According to the outputs of the survey (HASTI-Nepal in 2019), we designed an alternative project, entitled the Senior-citizen Community Development Program (SCDP) for self-sustaining the livelihood of senior citizens by providing mental support. The SCDP facilitates an opportunity to transfer the skills and experiences of senior citizens to mobilize the youths in entrepreneurship development institutionally at Municipality (Palika) or Ward levels for local level of prosperity by honoring the constitution and policy of the Nepal government. We can coordinate with all line agencies of government, non-government, and private sectors together adopting the Public-Private-Partnerships (3-Ps) that facilitates to increase the local level prosperity for self-sustaining the livelihood of senior citizens among 60+ elderly people in Nepal. As per the HASTI’s survey, six activities for Municipality (Palika) level and five for Ward level were identified to cover the complete package of the project. To implement the SCDP in the communities, there is needed to apply two simple methods for both levels. The first method is Trainers’ Training (TOT) on engineering, agriculture, and health areas. The second is the mobilization of youths in entrepreneurship development in the above 3 areas by a transformation of skills and experience of senior citizens. Thus, the SCDP assures a safe, nurturing, and secure home environment and other need-based help with dressing, grooming, and bathing friendly. Thus, the SCDP provides dignified and quality care to seniors who have dementia and other forms of memory loss occurred in elderly ages. Therefore, we recommend implementing the SCDP at Municipality (Palika) level with SIX facilities or Ward level with FIVE facilities for self-sustaining the livelihood by providing mental support among the senior citizens in Nepal.

Keywords: Elderly age; Senior citizen; Self-sustaining; Livelihood; Mental support; Prosperity

References

1. Racherla SJ. “Older women’s health and well-being. Kuala lumpur: asian-pacific resource and research centre for women” (2019).
2. “HelpAge” (2019).
3. Muna Sharma E. “Anxiety and Depression among Senior Citizens”. Nepal Health Research Council (2009): 308.
4. Muna Sharma E. “Anxiety and Depression among Senior Citizens”. Nepal Health Research Council (2009): 305.

Citation

Citation: Ranga Raj Dhungana., et al. “Self-Sustaining the Livelihood of Senior Citizens by Providing Mental Support Through Senior Citizen Community Development Program (SCDP)" Acta Scientific Neurology 5.3 (2022): 23-27.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Ranga Raj Dhungana., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.