New Modes of Activity Under the Pandemic
During the pandemic, elderly centres had to close, and many older people with cognitive impairment were unable to receive services. Because of the pandemic they could not go out either, which made their emotions highly unstable and their cognitive decline increasingly severe. Some older people clamoured every day to go out, which distressed their caregivers even more; they tried every possible means and spent all their energy trying to care well for the older person at home, and truly felt physically and mentally exhausted. Fortunately, we made use of today's technology: besides providing support by telephone, we also provided cognitive training online, and at the same time met older people and their caregivers directly through video to offer support. Although at the planning stage none of us colleagues had confidence, not knowing whether the older people and caregivers would be able to grasp the online mode of learning, in the end it was successfully introduced. I remember that the first time we did a live broadcast, the older people, the caregivers and my colleagues were all extremely excited — at last everyone could meet, have a good talk and comfort one another, and the older people could do their training together while caregivers joined in as well, making the caring journey a little less lonely! Although the pandemic has now eased somewhat and in-person activities and training have resumed, during the pandemic we used Facebook, online learning platforms and Zoom, and other different forms to run activities, and they proved effective. This mode will continue, but because the pandemic fluctuates, in-person training may be suspended at any time, so using the internet, this new service model, allows us to provide services and support without interruption. Being flexible and adaptable is one of our openly shared tricks of the trade in caring for people with cognitive impairment; there has never been a single way on the caring journey, and I believe there is still great room for creativity and for creating new service models. Let us all work hard together!