‘’The doorbell rung, I stood up to go and open the door, but once I stood up, I fell down. I was laying with the hope inside, that the person who rang the bell, would enter and help me’’, grandma Karine tells.
She is Armenian Red Cross Society’s “Integrated Community-Based Home Care Service Provision and Healthy Ageing” program beneficiary. Armenian Red Cross Society volunteers were those, who rang the doorbell, and they would not leave without helping. The project aims to improve quality of life of the elderly, the disabled and the persons with chronic disease, by improving access to integrated health care and social services. The preliminary researches showed that old people and people with disabilities want to be as free as possible and get care and help staying at home, taking part in their communities’ life and having a chance to be useful with their skills and knowledge. Thus, Armenian Red Cross Society team of the nurse and home care specialist, periodically visit lonely elderly people.
That day they opened the door with the help of the neighbours and took grandma Karine to the hospital. Narine (nurse) and Gayane (home care specialist) became frequent guests in her house.
The woman was bedridden, but with the support and care of Red Cross staff, she started to walk.
“They visit me 3 times a week, always call to know what I need, they buy necessary things for me and visit me. They provide me with food, drugs and also with fuel (wood), they also help me to do my exercises in order to walk better. They helped me to get the disability category and recently they helped me to get three month social pension of 18.000 dram. Before Armenian Red Cross Society staff visits I’d got neither pension nor the benefit”, she says.
