UBTH Graduates Nigeria’s First Set of Elder Care Aides (ECAs)

The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has successfully graduated Nigeria’s first set of Elder Care Aides (ECAs).

ECAs is a group of non-medical professionals trained to foster healthy aging by assisting elderly persons to cope with their peculiar health challenges and daily living.

The 68 new ECAs were trained by experts from Nigeria, the USA and the United Kingdom in a three-week intensive course at the hospital in Benin City.

The Chief Medical Director of UBTH, Prof. Darlington Obaseki said they organised the course as part of the 2023 edition of the annual United Nations International Day of Older Persons and the National Day of Older Persons.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony recently, the CMD outlined that the training programme would be institutionalised to continue to provide hands-on training for caregivers who will provide the required essential services to older persons.

He also disclosed that the hospital plans to transform the training programme to a full diploma course in line with the management’s commitment to make UBTH the “Harvard of West Africa”.

Programme Facilitator and Lead Faculty, Prof. Obehi Akoria described the training programme as an intervention to close critical gaps in the care of older persons, noting that the elderly in Nigeria encounter several challenges in and out of hospital.

Leveraging the successes of the Elder Friendly Hospitals Initiative (ELDFRHI) launched by the former Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the Geriatrics Team in UBTH is set to promote successful aging through the life course.

The team will use another innovative programme, the Ageing Friendly Households Initiative (AGEFRHI), upon which much of the training of the ECAs was focused.

The newly certified ECAs will be ambassadors of the AGEFRHI campaign and the life-course approach to successful (healthy) aging as propounded by the World Organisation, says Akoria, the immediate past Commissioner for Health in Edo State.

Participants were drawn from all the senatorial zones of Nigeria and the faculty comprised an inter-generational team of experts who were aged between 60 and 85 years.

Prof. Akoria was visibly enthused by the testimonials of the trainees, now certified as Elder Care Aides. According to one of the trainees, Idomeh Helen Ekijeme.

The ECA training has allowed her to “unlearn and learn” about the Care of the Elderly and also improved her communication skills.

“With this knowledge, I know that my Mom, my Entire Family, and anyone I come across as I journey through life, will age Gracefully,” she said.