Community Hero Health Check
Education & Consultation Project
Project Title: A COMMURO project; Community Hero Health Check, Education & Consultation Project
Team Composition: Run by students of Royal College of Surgeons Ireland & University College Dublin Malaysia Campus (RCSI UCD Malaysia Campus/RUMC) in collaboration with psychiatrist and physiotherapist team from Penang General Hospital, Malaysia and Medical Officers from University Sains Malaysia
Team Composition: Run by students of Royal College of Surgeons Ireland & University College Dublin Malaysia Campus (RCSI UCD Malaysia Campus/RUMC) in collaboration with psychiatrist and physiotherapist team from Penang General Hospital, Malaysia and Medical Officers from University Sains Malaysia
Project Mission: To provide elderly residents in The Penang Home with basic health check-up, advice on basic overall and lifestyle approaches of certain conditions, motivational interviewing sessions for certain habits and conditions, brain-stimulating fun and games whilst providing a one-to-one consultation with a psychiatrist or a physiotherapist.
Project Vision: To bridge the gap between elderly people and the services of health care professionals in Malaysia through a) blood pressure checking, b) body mass index, c) waist-hip ratio d) mental health screening, e) motivational interviewing sessions, f) brain stimulating sessions and g) consultation with a psychiatrist and/or with a physiotherapist
Objectives:
The objectives of this project is to provide the elderly residents in The Penang Home with;
Project Vision: To bridge the gap between elderly people and the services of health care professionals in Malaysia through a) blood pressure checking, b) body mass index, c) waist-hip ratio d) mental health screening, e) motivational interviewing sessions, f) brain stimulating sessions and g) consultation with a psychiatrist and/or with a physiotherapist
Objectives:
The objectives of this project is to provide the elderly residents in The Penang Home with;
- Health Check-Up Stations by measuring and recording their blood pressure, BMI, and Waist-Hip ratio. This would allow them to be better aware of their body conditions.
- Motivational interviewing done by medical officers from University Sains Malaysia after abnormal results collected from Blood Pressure, BMI and Waist-Hip Ratio stations.
- A mini Mental Health Screening Booth. This booth is an ‘open’ booth where the residents are given the choice either to participate or not in screening their mental health for depression and anxiety using a DASS scoring sheet. Two Question Screening Instrument for depression is also being used.
- Games and entertainment. The whole duration of the visit is to bring smiles and fun to the residents by having a karaoke session and playing number based games which is good to improve their memory and movement, and also helps to prevent dementia.
- Physiotherapy and counselling sessions, for the residents that needs them.
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Project Description
COMMURO project is jam-packed event on a Saturday from 11:30am to 5pm run by students from RCSI UCD Malaysia Campus and a team of psychiatrist and physiotherapist from Penang General Hospital for the elderly residents in The Penang Home. The participants are estimated to be 40 people. Most of the residents are in the age range of 63 to 90 years old. Some of them requires a wheelchair to move around and most of the residents needs a walking aid. Majority of the residents are Chinese, and they speak a variety of languages including basic Bahasa and English, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin.
We are there to provide elderly residents in The Penang Home with basic health check-up, advice on basic overall and lifestyle approaches of certain conditions, motivational interviewing sessions for certain habits and conditions, brain-stimulating fun and games whilst providing a one-to-one consultation with a psychiatrist or a physiotherapist.
The activity from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm will be done simultaneously.mOnly the residents staying on the ground floor and first floor will be joining the entertainment session due to mobility issues. The health check will move its station to the upper floors once they are done on the ground floors to accommodate the residents that have mobility issues.
Reason for the project
The primary motivation behind this event stems from our belief that Malaysia’s elderly population is on the rise. According to Department of Statistics Malaysia, in 1970, only 3.3 per cent of the population was aged 65 years and over, and almost half of the population (44.5%) was under the age of 14 years. By 2017, children make up less than one-fourth of the total population (24.1%), while those aged 65 years and over comprise 6.2 per cent of the total population. Therefore, as the population ages, the number of people with co-morbidities also continues to rise therefore as health care professionals, our team believe that more health screenings and health advices should be done so the elderly will live healthier lives and live a good age. Therefore, this brings us back to our vision which is to bridge the gap between elderly people and the services of health care professionals in Malaysia.
Community Needs Addressed
We believe that health of our elderly depends on regular health check-ups in a health care setting. By holding COMMURO Project in a community, the main aim is to raise awareness of the importance of health check-ups, and health lifestyle and overall approaches to certain conditions eg obese or hypertensive patients. Other than that, we also want to raise awareness on the importance of mental health screening and motivational interviewing sessions, while simultaneously providing services which a organisation home for the elderly lacks. with expert-led workshops. Finally, we hope that the we the students could practice our clinical skills while learning some valuable experiences from the psychiatrist and physiotherapist present.
COMMURO project is jam-packed event on a Saturday from 11:30am to 5pm run by students from RCSI UCD Malaysia Campus and a team of psychiatrist and physiotherapist from Penang General Hospital for the elderly residents in The Penang Home. The participants are estimated to be 40 people. Most of the residents are in the age range of 63 to 90 years old. Some of them requires a wheelchair to move around and most of the residents needs a walking aid. Majority of the residents are Chinese, and they speak a variety of languages including basic Bahasa and English, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin.
We are there to provide elderly residents in The Penang Home with basic health check-up, advice on basic overall and lifestyle approaches of certain conditions, motivational interviewing sessions for certain habits and conditions, brain-stimulating fun and games whilst providing a one-to-one consultation with a psychiatrist or a physiotherapist.
The activity from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm will be done simultaneously.mOnly the residents staying on the ground floor and first floor will be joining the entertainment session due to mobility issues. The health check will move its station to the upper floors once they are done on the ground floors to accommodate the residents that have mobility issues.
Reason for the project
The primary motivation behind this event stems from our belief that Malaysia’s elderly population is on the rise. According to Department of Statistics Malaysia, in 1970, only 3.3 per cent of the population was aged 65 years and over, and almost half of the population (44.5%) was under the age of 14 years. By 2017, children make up less than one-fourth of the total population (24.1%), while those aged 65 years and over comprise 6.2 per cent of the total population. Therefore, as the population ages, the number of people with co-morbidities also continues to rise therefore as health care professionals, our team believe that more health screenings and health advices should be done so the elderly will live healthier lives and live a good age. Therefore, this brings us back to our vision which is to bridge the gap between elderly people and the services of health care professionals in Malaysia.
Community Needs Addressed
We believe that health of our elderly depends on regular health check-ups in a health care setting. By holding COMMURO Project in a community, the main aim is to raise awareness of the importance of health check-ups, and health lifestyle and overall approaches to certain conditions eg obese or hypertensive patients. Other than that, we also want to raise awareness on the importance of mental health screening and motivational interviewing sessions, while simultaneously providing services which a organisation home for the elderly lacks. with expert-led workshops. Finally, we hope that the we the students could practice our clinical skills while learning some valuable experiences from the psychiatrist and physiotherapist present.
Timeline & Scheduling
The event takes approximately two months of planning.
The event takes approximately two months of planning.
- Two months prior (or earlier):
- Draft proposal
- Send out generic invitation to target community homes
- General committee meeting to plan proposal and set roles in the project
- Reach out to potential healthcare professionals (health experts)
- One month prior:
- Approval of project proposal by the target community home and our community project supervisor
- Two weeks prior:
- Planning of transportation
- Renting clinical and non-clinical equipments
- Sending out formal invitations
- One day prior:
- Prepare the place (stations set up)
Promotional Strategies
We sent out digital posters within our campus domain through our campus’ email to recruit volunteers.
Implementation Checklist
Conclusion
Completing a community project can provide a great sense of satisfaction, however, we also hope to address the needs of physiotherapists and counsellors in the nursing home. Besides that, we hope to eliminate mental health stigma and increase awareness on hypertension, obesity and the possible complications involved in chronic diseases.
Credits
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Penang Nursing Home for opening their place up for our MPU U4 Community Project and also would like to thank Puan Farah for her guidance. We would like to extend our thanks to our psychiatrist Dr. Uma and a team of physiotherapist students and their supervisor Ms Naimah and Ms Shantini whom formed the medical team from Penang General Hospital Malaysia and also the medical officers from University Sains Malaysia for helping us make this event a great success. We would also like to thank anyone who is not mentioned here who helped us through this MPU U4 Community Project.
Any queries can be made to Sim Jing Ying at simjingying1997@gmail.com or jysim@ms.rcsiucd.edu.my.
We sent out digital posters within our campus domain through our campus’ email to recruit volunteers.
Implementation Checklist
- Large rota of volunteers
- Enough food & drink to serve the volunteers and teachers
- Professional photographer/videographer
- Equipments preparation pre and post event
Conclusion
Completing a community project can provide a great sense of satisfaction, however, we also hope to address the needs of physiotherapists and counsellors in the nursing home. Besides that, we hope to eliminate mental health stigma and increase awareness on hypertension, obesity and the possible complications involved in chronic diseases.
Credits
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Penang Nursing Home for opening their place up for our MPU U4 Community Project and also would like to thank Puan Farah for her guidance. We would like to extend our thanks to our psychiatrist Dr. Uma and a team of physiotherapist students and their supervisor Ms Naimah and Ms Shantini whom formed the medical team from Penang General Hospital Malaysia and also the medical officers from University Sains Malaysia for helping us make this event a great success. We would also like to thank anyone who is not mentioned here who helped us through this MPU U4 Community Project.
Any queries can be made to Sim Jing Ying at simjingying1997@gmail.com or jysim@ms.rcsiucd.edu.my.