Jakarta, IO – Shefilyn Wijaya, a student of the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Medicine, International Class of 2017, won Second Position for her Scientific Poster in the North East Postgraduate 2021 (NEPG 2021) scientific conference and competition held in the United Kingdom. Her paper was titled “Adapting Care and Coping during Social Isolation: Impact of Covid-19 on Carers of Older Adults With and Without Dementia”.
NEPG is a scientific event that has run for more than 10 years. It brings together Master and Doctoral students with established researchers in their relevant biomedical fields. They get to share their research with their peers, using verbal presentations or posters.
Shefilyn researched this topic during her time in Newcastle University, UK, as part of her studies in the International Class. “My paper and poster are about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the quality of life and mental health of geriatric citizens in the United Kingdom, whether they have dementia or not, and the coping mechanisms that they use,” she said as quoted by Fkui.ac.id on Monday (20/12/2021).
Shefilyn went on to explain that her research shows that the wellbeing of geriatric citizens in the United Kingdom during the pandemic has deteriorated. Thematic analysis shows that there is an increase of caretaking load, worsened with reduced rest time among the population taking care of these geriatrics. “Even worse, elders who suffer from dementia show signs of deteriorating neuropsychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and agitation. During the lockdown, the dominant coping strategy is increased social connectivity, facilitated by communications technology, such as the use of the internet for social interactions,” she said. (est)