Sharjah Social Services Department (SSSD) targeted social care providers who are working in social centres of the private sector to care for the elderly and people with disabilities. SSSD provided “Doama” (Pillar), with the aim of qualifying social care providers on how to deal with seniors over the age of 60 year and people with disabilities, ensuring that they are competent and skilled in providing appropriate care at home or in private social centres through free training workshops.
Kholoud Al Nuaimi, Executive Director of the Community Service Sector at SSSD, stated that the number of beneficiaries of the training courses today reached 344 social care providers, noting that the “Doama” initiative is free of charge to residents and citizens of Sharjah who wish to take the course, after submitting the application on the Department’s website sssd.shj.ae
Al Nuaimi said that “Doama” programme is implemented through training courses to qualify social care providers, whether helpers at home or in private social care centres, whereas the number of workshops has reached 40 external workshops.
Al Nuaimi stated that the aim of the initiative is to ensure the application of best practices in the field of social care and empowerment, which is consistent with the SSSD objectives, “a society that enjoys well-being, decent living, and quality of life”.
“Doama” programme is presented over a period of 3 days, and is divided into 3 main axes, which are presented through the implementation of workshops supported by appropriate tools and devices for each workshop, so that social care providers pass all the workshops and training hours scheduled for the programme, with a total of 9 training hours, and then obtain a certificate of passing the programme. The programme is presented in Arabic, English and Urdu, according to the language of the social care provider, and the implementation of the workshops is supervised by work teams specialised in caring for the elderly and people with disabilities.
The programme includes training and educating workers on how to deal with the elderly and their family, taking into account training on Emirati customs and traditions for citizens, or what is known as the Emirati Culture Guide, daily hygiene, and appropriate daily exercise.
They are also trained on health and nursing aspects, such as how to deal with medications, their validity and indications for use, how to arrange and store medications and specific doses, and learn about aspects of physical therapy, and how to avoid the elderly from developing bed sores.
The workshops also include preparing healthy meals, and the risks of falling and safety by enhancing exercise and mobility training. The topics also include preventing and dealing with ulcers and maintaining a clean, safe and healthy living environment, as well as introducing the setbacks that the elderly can experience, and methods of communicating with responsible authorities and others, which are among the necessary basic rules that must be known by those caring for the elderly and people with disabilities at home and in social care centres.