It is high time we took both social recession and social distancing caused by the spread of covid gravely.
Though quick execution of social distancing is essential to assuage the cumulative effect of coronavirus disease and its dissemination across almost all across the world and also to prevent the current pandemic from worsening, just as this fallout threatens to be the reason behind an economic recession, it may well even cause a social recession, i.e., a cave in among socially active contacts of affected individuals. This shall predominantly affect the population most vulnerable to isolation and loneliness: older adults, old individuals suffering from disabilities and those who have been suffering from preexisting health conditions.
A major worry or pain point in the response to the covid pandemic is that it’s very challenging to make people accept social distancing. In this scenario, individuals usually associate messages about necessary social isolation with chaos.
However, in order to address the ultimate concern of the well-being of the isolated elderly patients who have been quarantined, it is important for these isolated elderly patients to gain access to the outside world remotely. This is when digital applications come into the picture.
Fear of making mistakes and major apprehensions pertinent to their social responsibility of setting examples for their young ones(for them to not become dependent on technology in near future) are a couple of reasons why older people refrain from using technology and are usually not familiar with usage of state-of-the-art gadgetry and online applications.
Despite an increase in the numbers of older adults accessing the Internet after being quarantined, it has been established that older adults use significantly fewer digital applications and spend less time online than younger adults. Some older people are put off using online tools because they see them as being grueling and tedious to work with, owing to older adults not being comfortable with the user interface of contemporary devices.
In addition to these factors, security concerns have also been omnipresent among older adults, with many of them lacking confidence in their own knowledge of using online tools properly: using online applications for procuring commodities like groceries, medicines, etc. being one of them.
The Indian government has urged Indian citizens who are over the age of 60 years to not move out of their houses for a few weeks. Social isolation has been the chief reason behind an elevated peril of untimely death when compared with all the other causes put together. Isolation & seclusion cause constant worry and anxiety; which in turn increase the secretion of a key stress hormone: cortisol in the body of the isolated persons, especially among elderly persons. It is also linked to higher levels of inflammation in the body. This augments the risk of mental diseases, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and ill-timed death.
We at Tulasi Healthcare can help the quarantined/isolated elderly patients who are not familiar with applications meant for the procurement of groceries/medicines online, by introducing them to the functionality of these digital applications and by tutoring them on how to use all the features of these applications, for them to benefit from the same. These include renowned applications such as Big Basket, Prime Pantry, Grofers, Nature’s Basket, Bazaar Cart, PharmEasy, etc.
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