Community Support and Care | bocs.net.au
Community care is a form of empathy that pushes people to think about their wellbeing as an extension of the needs of those around them. It is a practice that can be implemented formally or informally.
Community support services can have many benefits for individuals with disabilities. For instance, one study found that community support increases the confidence of care-recipients with disabilities in their ability to continue living in the community.
Self-Care
Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. As the world struggles to meet its demand for healthcare services, self-care is gaining attention as an important strategy for managing chronic diseases.
A self-care routine can help you improve your mental and physical well-being, reduce stress and anxiety, boost happiness levels, and more. It can also benefit your relationships, increase productivity at work, and boost the immune system. It’s important to remember that self-care isn’t something that should be viewed as selfish. When you take care of yourself, you are better able to provide care for others.
It’s important to note that the definition of self-care varies from person to person. For example, a young person who is busy with school and a social life may need to focus on physical self-care, while someone who is retired might have more of an emphasis on psychological self-care.
Isolation
Although some people may enjoy solitude, isolation is an unwelcome state that often carries health risks. Unlike loneliness, which can occur with any amount of social contact, social isolation results from a lack of connections. Individuals who suffer from isolation may benefit from talk therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT sessions help individuals identify misperceptions and reshape negative thinking.
Communities across the globe are taking innovative steps to address the rise of isolation. They use community care strategies to connect people not only to each other but also to healthcare professionals and resources. For example, Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench program, now adapted in eight countries from Malawi to Canada, provides a gateway to mental health support by putting trained community members on benches at clinics and communities to offer assistance with tasks of daily living. This helps individuals stay connected to the community and improves their quality of life. It can also reduce the strain on healthcare systems, a key element of the COVID-19 pandemic's physical distancing measures.
Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool for community support and care. Its accessibility allows it to reach a wide audience, especially when it comes to crisis management during times of emergency or natural disaster. It can also be used to provide education on a variety of topics.
In addition to providing educational information, a social media team can be used to promote events and programs in the community. For example, COMPASS uses Twitter to post promotions for regular scholarly events (eg, monthly journal club discussions focusing on articles addressing health equity and social determinants of health) and picture-based promotions of community partnered community health and wellness events.
Moreover, it is important for community-oriented organizations to maintain an active social media presence so that they can be a source of information during emergency situations. They can monitor all relevant queries and comments, hashtags and posts from fans and followers on their owned profiles, and respond to them as quickly as possible. Unanswered comments and questions can damage brand reputation, and the longer a problem is left unsolved, the harder it will be to recover.










