Tribune News Network
Doha
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Department of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care, recently appointed as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Ageing and Dementia in Qatar, hosted a three-day training workshop on Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE). The workshop, held under the auspices of MoPH Qatar, was attended by 21 specialist multidisciplinary delegates from Iraq and clinicians from Qatar, aiming to inspire and support the implementation of a similar ICOPE model in Iraq.
Ali Al Janahi, acting assistant managing director at HMC, welcomed the Iraqi delegates and supported the workshop’s success.
Dr Al Abdulla Al Ansari, chief medical officer at HMC, highlighted the honour of Qatar being chosen as the first pilot site in the Middle East. He said, “Choosing Qatar as the first pilot site in the Middle Eastern region is a great honour. I appreciate the education and knowledge investment that Dr Hanadi Al Hamad, the National Lead of ICOPE, and her team have made in sharing their expertise and helping to train our primary care teams involved in this amazing project. This is a real demonstration of what collaboration can achieve, based on a joint commitment to deliver the best evidence-based care to our older population, and now, in extension, to Iraq.”
Dr Hanadi Al Hamad, National Health Strategy Lead for Healthy Ageing in Qatar, Senior Consultant Geriatrician, Deputy Chief for Long Term Care, Rehabilitation, Home Care Services, and Geriatric Care, Medical Director at Rumailah Hospital and QRI, and Head of the First and only WHO Collaboration Centre for Healthy Ageing and Dementia, explained that Qatar and the world have a growing elderly population, making the promotion of healthy ageing a priority for our centre both nationally and regionally. She stated, “The ICOPE care model reflects a unique community-based approach that will help reorient health and social services towards a more person-centered and coordinated model of care, supporting the optimization of functional ability for older people.”
It’s been over a year since the first clinic at Al Wajba Health Centre opened. The clinic operates every Wednesday, working alongside geriatric and PHCC multidisciplinary teams. Elderly residents in the catchment zone of Al Wajba have been served successfully. Recently, a second ICOPE Clinic at Rawadat Al Khail PHCC was launched and now runs every Thursday.
With the expertise of Qatar’s ICOPE Clinic services, which is the first and only ICOPE Clinic in the world integrated with the country’s electronic medical records, WHO EMRO approached Qatar’s WHO Collaboration Centre to provide capacity-building support for the implementation of the ICOPE Project in Iraq. The three-day workshop was planned with Qatar’s expertise, along with WHO experts.
ICOPE is a public health integrated care programme for people above 60 years, which aims to support the independence of older people living in society. ICOPE proposes evidence-based recommendations for health care professionals to prevent, slow, or reverse declines in the physical and mental capacities of older people.
The three-day workshop gave teams a platform to engage in extensive discussions on how to adapt and implement the ICOPE programme most effectively for elderly population in Iraq.
Working in close collaboration with the Primary Health Care Corporation, two ICOPE clinics have been established: Al Wajba Health Centre and Rawdhat Al Khail Health Center PHCC. These clinics feature reception desks, assessment and treatment rooms, all designed to diagnose and manage the numerous physiological changes that often occur with increasing age.
As people age, health decline can manifest as visual impairment, hearing loss, cognitive decline, malnutrition, mobility loss, depressive symptoms, urinary incontinence, and balance issues that may lead to falls. The aim is to identify any such impairments, or the risk of them developing or progressing, as soon as possible to intervene and enable older people to experience a better quality of life, recognizing their right to be treated with dignity and respect.
Sharing on the workshop’s achievements, Dr Wasim Akram, Geriatrician and Clinical Lead for ICOPE from the Department of Geriatrics at HMC, stated: “Over the three-day workshop, attendees learned about age-friendly primary care, communication skills for interacting with older people, ICOPE core principles, ICOPE care pathways tailored to Iraq’s context, and numerous real-life case studies discussed in groups and role-play scenarios served as training.”
The Iraqi delegation visited the Qatar Rehabilitation Institute (QRI), where they saw advancements in technology in areas such as the Gait Lab, Easy Street, and the in-patient paediatric ward.
