Home-Based Care: Helping Lonely People in the Mykolaiv Region

Being left alone with your problems is a difficult challenge for an elderly person. Home-Based Care is an activity of the Ukrainian Red Cross that provides support in daily routines to those who cannot meet their own needs due to health conditions and need external assistance. 

In the Mykolaiv region, specialists from a local social services centre appealed to the Ukrainian Red Cross with a request for assistance with a 72-year-old man who had suffered a stroke. After being discharged from the hospital, he returned home with the help of an ambulance but was unable to care for himself, prepare meals, or manage daily tasks due to his health. He had been without food, drinking water, and medicine for about 20 days. 

Having learned about the situation, the Ukrainian Red Cross Home-Based Care team provided the necessary assistance, including water, hygiene products, and food. The man is now under the ongoing care of Ukrainian Red Cross social assistants. 

Within the Home-Based Care programme framework, Ukrainian Red Cross social assistants provide comprehensive humanitarian support to lonely elderly people and people with disabilities across the country. Currently, nearly 1,200 social assistants of the Ukrainian Red Cross provide care to more than 6,700 beneficiaries in 746 settlements across Ukraine.