UBTH graduates Nigeria’s first Elder Care Aides

The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has graduated Nigeria’s first set of Elder Care Aides (ECAs), a group of non-medical professionals trained to assist elderly persons to cope with their peculiar health challenges and daily living.

The 68 new ECAs were trained by experts from Nigeria, United States of America (U.S.A.) and United Kingdom in a three-week intensive course UBTH in Benin City.

Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Prof. Darlington Obaseki, disclosed that the course was organised as part of the 2023 edition of United Nations International Day of Older Persons and the National Day of Older Persons.

At the graduation, the CMD announced that the training programme would be institutionalised to continue to provide hands-on training for caregivers, who would provide the required essential services to older persons.

He also disclosed that “the hospital plans to transform the training to a full diploma course” in line with the management’s commitment to making UBTH the Harvard of West Africa.

Programme Facilitator and Faculty Lead, Prof. Obehi Akoria, described the training as an intervention to close critical gaps in the care of older persons, noting that the elderly in Nigeria encounter several challenges in and out of hospital.

Leveraging the successes of the Elder-Friendly Hospitals Initiative (ELDFRHI), which was launched by the former Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the Geriatrics Team in UBTH is set to promote successful ageing through the lifecourse using another innovative programme, the Ageing-Friendly Households Initiative (AGEFRHI), upon which much of the training of the ECAs was focused.

The newly certified ECAs will be ambassadors of the AGEFRHI campaign and the life course approach to successful (healthy) ageing as propounded by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Prof. Akoria, the immediate past Commissioner for Health in Edo State, said.

According to one of the trainees, Idomeh Ekijeme, the training has given her the opportunity to “unlearn and learn” about care of the elderly and improved her communication skills.

“With this knowledge, I know that my mother, my entire family and any one I come across as I journey through life, will definitely age gracefully,” she said.