Giving Compass' Take:

• This article from Futurity shares the best practices for ensuring the safety of older adults as the pandemic persists in its global spread.

• What are you doing to ensure the safety of older adults in your life and the lives of others? How can funders work to fund support for older adults? 

• Take a look at some potential pathways for supporting communities affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

While health experts in Australia work to prevent the spread of COVID-19, protecting older adults come with extra health considerations, new research shows.

If an older adult has other diseases such as heart disease or diabetes, then they also have organ systems that are compromised.

So, when a new virus such as COVID-19 is presented to the body, the other organs also have to cope with the new disease. This means that the resilience of the entire system is diminished, putting older adults with multi-morbidities at a greater mortality risk.

Standard hygiene precautions are important. Physical distancing measures are being implemented as it’s important to ensure that older adults are not in contact with someone who is sick. However, this can be hard for older adults, especially those who require support for their daily activities.

As the community moves through the next few weeks with COVID-19, it’s about having a balance of limited contact to stop the spread of the virus but also ensuring our aging population are well cared for, whether it’s family or elderly neighbors.

If you’re worried about an aging parent or grandparent and want to check on them, make sure you are not infected by COVID-19; prevention is paramount. If you are not feeling well, it’s simple, do not visit.

If you are unable to visit someone, think about other ways you can connect with them; letters, phone calls, video calls—we know that video calls and visually seeing someone you care about has a great impact on health and well-being.

Most importantly—take care of yourself, your loved ones, and your neighbors. But do it carefully.

Read the full article about ensuring the safety of older adults from COVID-19 at Futurity.