In addition to offering psychological workshops, the UPLA supports regular activities to the elderly of vulnerable areas
Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) contributes, through its Psychology Unit Luis Azagra (UPLA)Days of psychological well -being to populations from areas with lack of psychological care such as antímano, Caricuao, La Vega, Montalbán, El Paraíso and Catia.
Diego Santoyo, the UPLA psychologist explained to the mobile ARI of The whistle, Runrun.es and SuchWhich That the objective of the unit is to meet the diverse psychological needs of different populations such as children, adolescents, university students, among others. This year, the initiatives are aimed at the elderly and how to help them carry healthy aging with different physical and psychological habits.
Diego Santoyo, Psychologist of the Psychology Unit Luis Azagra of the social extension of the UCAB. Photography: Yaya Andueza
Vulnerabilities of people of the 3rd age in Venezuela
Aging carries physical and mental changes that afflict people. Accepting these changes and adapting to them are usually the main difficulty of the elderly.
But beyond this natural condition, Josuaris Mardegi, coordinator of the clinical area indicated that this population in Venezuela “can present different situations and living conditions that mean challenges and that more complex can be made due, for example, to the current situation of the country, at the country, at the economic and family level.”
Within these situations, these experts mentioned how migration has caused the physical separation of the affective link of the elderly with their relatives. This, in turn, has generated that many of these people are in total solitude without any relative of their nucleus nearby.
JOSUARIS MARDEGI, Coordinator of the Clinical Area of the Psychology Unit Luis Azagra of Social Extension of the UCAB. Photography: Yaya Andueza
*Also read: Ari Mobile | II Edition of the Independent Editorials Fair of Venezuela
Similarly, Diego Santoyo stressed that this situation of Soledad makes these people especially vulnerable to other difficulties of the environment such as the country’s economic instability. “Older adults who remain here making life, therefore many times are in quite precarious living conditions.”
What to do to improve the living conditions of the elderly?
In the medium and short term, the experts of the UPLA stressed that it is important to generate the approach and link of these older people alone with other people who remain close in their lives. On the other hand, from the cognitive physical point of view, experts commented on the importance of promoting mental exercises in a daily basis.
The UPLA in these cases, organizes recreational, academic activities, with some difficulty for these older adults to be carried out weekly and thus maintain cerebral plasticity and agility, anticipating diseases associated with aging such as Alzheimer’s.
Since these activities are carried out with a large group, Diego Santoyo said that the most important thing in this initiative is that “these groups end up generating a kind of internal community” that serves as emotional containment, company and support.
“I have found a company here”
The Information Truck of the Rebel Alliance investigates The whistle, Runrun.es and SuchWhich The coverage of the day culminated knowing the perception of the elderly.
Saide Yamaui and Yajaira Montoya, participants of the Mental Health Day of the Psychology Unit Luis Azagra for Social Extension of the UCAB. Photography: Yaya Andueza.
Yajaira Montoya is 73 years old. She has been a retired teacher for 25 years. Montoya had no children and since he widowed he lives alone. While in the information truck sharing their history thanks the leaders of UPLA workers for all the attention paid.
“The boys are very attentive, they are very cordial, they look for us.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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