Project Outline


2020-21>> During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the elders were seen as most vulnerable. A few concerned individuals and organisations came together to develop some innovative ways to address this issue in alignment with global, national, state and local government policies, plans and initiatives,

 

An informal alliance was formed on 01 Oct 2020 between – the AGEDcare (Association for Geriatrics and Eldercare Development ) Kangra, the District Red Cross Society, Kangra, and EduCARE (Education and Community Applied Research Endeavours) at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. The interactions led to coming together of and harnessing the potential of each of the organisation – past community based eldercare project work experience of EduCARE, the medical and subject expertise of AGEDcare, and the Red Cross mandate and representation of local administration and the government.

 

2021-22 >> EduCARE took responsibility for the project design and implementation. The SEHAT SEVA Abhiyan (Social-care Enhancement through Home-health Aide, Tele-health, Social Entrepreneurship and Volunteer Action) was thus formed at EduCARE Dharamshala through 2020 to 2021.

                

It set up a 12-independent rooms facility for free COVID care at Kangra in May 2021 in support of the Red Cross / government administration’s call, training of 24 COVID Warriors started in the facilities in association with NSDC in Sep 2021. Various meetings and discussions were organised in 2021-2022.

2022-23 >> During 2022-23, the local administration took a bold step to invest more support for the project by integrating the COVID Warriors as SEHAT SEVA Workers in various ongoing government initiatives. The project was presented to the NITI Ayog as an innovative public-private and GO-NGO model for sustainable healthcare services outreach, with a major focus on eldercare through home-health aide.

Aug-Oct 2022 >> On the occasion of celebrating a Tri-Fortnight for Senior Citizens from 21 Aug to 01 Oct 2023 (from Senior Citizens Day to the UN Day for Older Persons), a micro-pilot project was launched for 3 village panchayat clusters of 3 different medical blocks wherein under the aegis of a “VARISHTH Naagrik Suvidha -evam- SEHAT SEVA Kendra” in each village atleast 2 SEHAT SEVA Workers will visit a select number of in need elderly in their homes to provide home health aide twice a month.

Aug-Oct 2023 >> So by middle of 2023 we have been able to organise a number of consultations with various stakeholders and are ready with the evolved design of the project wherein it will mobilise, select, train, deploy and manage 2 SEHAT SEVA Workers each in a village panchayat under the aegis of the District Red Cross Society under the wise leadership of the DC Kangra and EduCARE Dharamshala. After successful integration in 3-medical blocks, it will be expanded to other blocks in the following year and presented as a sucessful replicable, scalable and sustainable government engaged SESEP (Social Enterprise Self-Employment Program) project model.

In a kind of ASHA Worker programme ofor women with a flavour of CSC design, it is a robust community based and health department integrated home health aide / geriatric care services mechanism.

This initiative will help mitigate various age-related sufferings through home health medical aid and provide at-home delivery of other senior citizen services converging various government schemes for elders thus providing a sense of identity, dignity, and independence to senior citizens without big extra financial burden on the government or the elders.

Five Year Plan

Through grassroots-level community mobilization, engagement, and empowerment efforts, project staff and volunteers, medical professionals, and the local administration has engaged with the community to identify collective motivations and community needs to create a five-year plan.

2020-21

  • Need assessment and problem shaping
  • Solution formulation

2021-23

  • PHASE 1: Solution validation and demonstration (grassroots-level proof-of-work) in 03 PANCHAYAT CLUSTERS with 30 SEHAT SEVA volunteer workers

2023 -24

  • PHASE 2: Scaling up to and integration with the existing healthcare system at BLOCK-level in 03 BLOCKS (60+ PANCHAYAT CLUSTERS) with 300+ SEHAT SEVA volunteer workers

 

Figure 1: Phase 2 PANCHAYAT CLUSTERS

2024-25