Elderly Caregiving: Certificates Presented To Elderly Caregivers

Department of Social Welfare presented certificates to elderly caregivers who completed the 8th batch training course at Day Care Centre for the Aged on Tuesday.

Elderly Caregiver and Japanese Language Training course was first opened in September 2015 by the Department of Social Welfare in cooperation with Kyoshin Co., Ltd. In 2017, the department signed MoU with Kyoshin Co., Ltd from Japan to receive technical assistance for effective elderly care-giving system. The 9-week course provides training for 20 to 40 caregivers a batch who are over 18 years old and finished middle school level education. The programme has produced a total of 211 professional elderly caregivers so far.

Director, Department of Social Welfare (Yangon Region), Dr. Kaythi Kyaw said “The training aims to produce professional caregivers both for local and abroad. For local, we are shaping sustainable edge of staffs from elderly care centres and social workers. Regarding abroad, Japan mostly needs elderly care givers due to their over populated number of elders. About 7 well-trained caregivers from batch 1 to 7 of our course are now working in Japan.”

The training also aims to build up the capacity of elderly caregivers as it is expected to have 1 elder out of 4 person in Myanmar by 2050; to have a formal elderly care-giving system with well-understanding of Gerontology; and to provide job opportunities. Lecturers and trainers include social workers from department of social welfare, lecturers from psychology department of Yangon University, nurses, officials from the Ministry of Health and Sports, Disaster Management Department and experts from Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Elderly Caregiver, Kyaw Soe Oo said “I attended this training course to work as a professional caregiver in Japan. I learned a lot from this course especially on how to interact with elders who are suffering from depression, counselling and how to prevent ourselves from getting into depression. With practical training, I now understand and know more about elders and sympathize with them.”

It’s learnt that 15 graduating students from this batch are fully prepared to work in Japan and the department also plans to send off 100 to 150 well-trained caregivers a year to Japan in the next years.