Older adults are one of the most vulnerable groups in Lebanon especially given the current political, social, health, and financial crisis that we are going through. 

Older adults, their caregivers, and persons working with this age group require support during these tough times and governmental and non-governmental organizations are working relentlessly in decreasing the burden of this situation. 

TEC-MED & Capacity Building in Lebanon

The TEC-MED project is a cross-cultural project implemented in several countries across the Mediterranean. For Lebanon specifically, this project is the light at the end of the tunnel during these tough times. IDRAAC, the Lebanese partner, has been working along with the other partners in the different countries to implement the project in Lebanon.

An important component of the TEC-MED project is capacity building. IDRAAC has worked on assessing the needs in terms of capacity building and training through informant interviews with older persons, caregivers, and stakeholders in Lebanon who work on supporting older persons. 

Several needs have been identified in the past months and served as a basis for the development of a capacity-building plan which will be rolled out during the implementation of the project.

Expressed needs were diverse and covered different aspects such as digital capacity, elderly care and communication, mental health and psychosocial support, advocacy and elderly rights, and networking.

Each participating country in the TEC-MED project has developed a capacity-building plan relevant to its context and needs and will be implemented in each country and target specific stakeholders. 

In the Institute for Development, Research, Defense and Applied Attention (IDRAAC) capacity building plan, different needs for capacity building will be addressed and a variety of tools will be used such as:

• Live and online pieces of training on different topics such as:
  • Use of the TEC-MED platform and digital capacity
  • Communication with older persons and relational care
  • Elderly rights and ethical considerations
  • Governance and emergency planning and relief for old age

• Micro-trainings through educational videos that IDRAAC has been working on the development and address various health and social aspects related to old age and will be used during the intervention phase of the project.

The topics which will be covered include:

• Quality of Life (as an effort to improve quality of life of persons in old age)
• Mental Health and Physical Health (covering common conditions related to old age as well as tips and tools for their management)
• Age-friendly and social actions (covering different aspects and dedicated to older persons and their environment) 

Resources Guide which will support organizations and present them with available resources for old age. 

This capacity-building plan is an important resource for the project and its implementation in Lebanon. It is also a pioneering initiative in the provision of capacity-building activities dedicated to old age and covering different needs shared by the community. Hopefully, this will be a reference and cornerstone for more similar actions dedicated to old age in Lebanon and the region.