The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) of the Universitas Indonesia (UI) through the Reproductive Health Study Group (Pokdi) in collaboration with Elderly Friendly Indonesia (IRL) held a Training of Trainer (TOT) activity for prospective elderly school managers. This activity, which was held on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, in the FPH UI Doctoral Promotion Room, was one of the community service activities as an initial stage before the implementation of an elderly school in Depok City.
The increase in the elderly population is a challenge for the government and society to encourage the elderly to have a good and healthy quality of life. The growing elderly population requires attention from both the government, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. West Java Province itself has now entered aging population where the elderly population has reached 10.8% of the total population or there are at least more than 5 million elderly people in West Java.
Programs related to aging have not yet fully received the attention of various parties, several long-term and short-term activities and programs have been run independently and initiated by the community and non-profit, non-governmental non-profit organizations. Synergy efforts are needed between various elements, both government and society, to support efforts to improve the quality of life of the elderly through various productive programs.
Indonesia Friendly to the Elderly (IRL) West Java Province is a non-profit organization committed to empowering elderly people in the community with a sustainable program approach. One of the programs run by IRL is an elderly school. This program is one of the lifelong education efforts intended for the elderly. This program is an implementation of the mandate of Republic of Indonesia Law Number 13 of 1998 concerning the welfare of the elderly. Based on this law, it is stated that as respect and appreciation for the elderly, they are given the right to improve social welfare, including through education and training services.
Therefore, Pokdi Kespro FPH UI is collaborating with IRL to form an Elderly School which is aimed at increasing the elderly’s understanding of the aging process and the changes and problems that occur, so that the elderly can make efforts to prevent health problems and maintain their level of health. This effort is expected to encourage the elderly to remain healthy, independent, active, productive, and dignified in their old age.
The lifelong education program through senior schools organized by IRL West Java has been running since 2019, and to date has spread to 27 regencies and cities throughout West Java, with 3000 participants aged 60 to 120 years.
“Hopefully this collaborative activity in education, community service and research in the form of an elderly school can attract the interest of many elderly people to join and empower themselves together. It is also hoped that this Training of Trainers training for prospective elderly school managers will bring benefits to all participants that can be applied later. “In the future, we hope that there will be more activities that are beneficial for the elderly which we will carry out together with students from the Master of Public Health Specialization in Elderly Health at FPH UI,” said the Head of the Reproductive Health Study Group at FPH UI, Prof. Dr. Dr. Sabarinah, M.Sc.
In this training, participants consisting of 50 elderly cadres, observers and researchers received material regarding the introduction of elderly schools, understanding the aging process and the need for lifelong education, technical management of elderly schools, preparing learning plans for elderly schools and administration of elderly schools, as well as plans follow-up. (wrk)