PRINCESS Alexandra Hospital (PAH) is to hold a special event for International Day
of the Older Person – October 1
October 1 is The International Day of the Older Person, and The Princes Alexandra Hospital Trust (PAHT) in Harlow will be holding a special event to celebrate our older members of the community.

Patients and carers are invited to join in an afternoon tea with activities specially catering for older people.

It is an opportunity to raise awareness of the particular needs of the most frail patients.
A dedicated frailty team at the hospital has been working on innovative ways to improve the service PAHT provides for the frail elderly. As a result, the Trust has opened a frailty assessment unit within the emergency department which makes sure that staff can easily identify patients who need particular care designed for those who are most frail. This is also supported with a multi-disciplinary one-stop team.

The Trust has also been working in partnership with primary care, social care and voluntary sectors in promoting good quality of life for our older people. Keeping active when you’re older is recognised as being key to keeping well. To emphasise this, the event at the hospital will focus on activities and encouraging the elderly to be involved in what is available in the community.

One particular activity during the event will highlight the important role of older people in the community. The #Granny for newborns knitting circle is inviting grannies – and granddads – to get their knitting needles out to show off their skills in a fading craft. The product of the event will be part of an ongoing effort to provide hats for the neonatal unit. Staff at the Trust have been asking people to knit a red hat for a newborn as part of the #Granny for newborns challenge. The most vulnerable newborns in hospital are given a red hat to enable clinicians on ward rounds to easily identify them. Everyone is being asked to take part – so to find out more come along to the event.

Janice Bernardo, frailty lead practitioner at PAHT who is organising the event, said: “We know that a long hospital stay can be detrimental to older people due to muscle wastage, and that keeping active is really important to avoid a stay in hospital. So as well as improving your care, we are keen that if you are elderly you have access to activities. Come along to our special day where there will be information and advice, as well as a chance to celebrate.

We would like to thank Rainbow Services Harlow who are working in partnership with us on the day.”

The event will take place from 1 to 3pm at the visitor centre at the hospital in Hamstel Road, CM20 1QX. For more information, please contact the frailty team at [email protected] .