Stay At Home Orders Affecting Senior Citizens

Anxiety and depression can be some of the symptoms the elderly may face with the enforcement of the strict stay at home order. 

Retiree, Joyce McKenzie, an Octogenarian, recognizes that she is a member of the most at risk group for the contraction of COVID-19. Her thoughts are often concerned with how trivially many Jamaicans seem to be in dealing with the virus.

“You have to be careful, people can’t visit you as they use to. You can’t go out…. now I don’t take taxis, I don’t know who was sitting there before me,” she says.

Christopher Charles, Psychologist and Professor at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus says senior citizens who once were self reliant have to now rely on other people to do their daily duties which can weigh on their independence.

“The lost of independence for someone who’s getting old can lead to a range of problems. It can lead to anxiety and anxiety is more [prone] to them because of their age… Older Jamaicans, more than others are more likely to die, if they’re infected with COVID-19,” Charles says

McKenzie, a former Principal, says the stay at home order can lead to a very lonely life however,  she has  been coping with the pandemic by a keeping a positive mind, going for walks and exercising.

“I have colouring books, I have puzzle books, I have jigsaw puzzles, things to occupy the mind,” she adds.

Professor Charles says as a community believes it is important to engage the elderly socially, as long as  protocols to keepsenior citizen safe are followed.

CVM LIVE‘s reporter Paige Dixon reports: