Continuity of Home Care and Telecare Services for Older Adults in the Era of COVID-19

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Agence Française de Développement  (AFD), the European Union through its EUROsociAL+ programme, and the Secretariat of Central American Social Integration  (SISCA) hereby invite you to the second webinar in the Panorama of Aging and Long-Term Care series, dedicated to supporting Latin American and Caribbean countries in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on older adults.

Home care for care-dependent persons—through home or telecare services—is a generally recommended practice because of its positive effects in terms of patients’ quality of life. Within the context of care policies, it also reduces the pressure on the health sector and on nursing homes, allowing for better resource redistribution.

However, in the current context of the worldwide spread of COVID-19, these services are highly affected by the risk of contagion to which both patients and caregivers alike are exposed. Because of this, in some countries home care services have been reduced or even canceled. So how can the continuity of home care services be guaranteed, preventing the spread of infection and promoting patients’ physical and emotional well-being? Can telecare services that have been established over the past few years to support moderately care-dependent persons coordinate their efforts to guarantee care?

After the first webinar on the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes and day centers, the second webinar, titled Continuity of Home Care and Telecare Services for Older Adults in the Era of COVID-19, will be held on May 18, 2020, at 10 AM (EDT). In this webinar, Alfonso Lara Montero, Director of the European Social Network, will share the European experience. For his part, Juan Luis Bermudez, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion and Executive President of IMAS in Costa Rica, and Daniel Radío, the National Secretary of Care in Uruguay, will share the measures that are being taken in Costa Rica and Uruguay, respectively, to guarantee home and remote care services during the emergency caused by the pandemic. The discussion will be enriched by the participation of institutional representatives in the sector from other countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

The webinar will be in Spanish with English interpreting.

Event duration: 2 hours.