Influenza Vaccine Mobile Health Clinic for Older Adults

This article discusses the benefits of an influenza vaccine mobile health clinic for older adults. It explores how the clinic can support healthy aging and foster social engagement among older adults. The article also highlights the target population and the services provided by the clinic.

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Name of the Student
Name of University
Author’s note

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SERVICE – Influenza vaccine mobile health clinic supported by multi disciplinary team of
Nurses, Doctors and Pharmacist.
TARGET POPULATION – Older adults over the age of 80 living in the rural community.
Questions:
How will your service foster the social engagement of older adults?
Social engagement has always been related to healthy ageing. It is a rich web of human
involvement that stimulates the brain and stimulates the mind and memory.
The multidisciplinary team might provide a holistic care to the patients by
communicating with the elderly people in a non –hostile manner. The service might also provide
referrals to other health care service pertaining to healthy ageing, such as dieticians or
occupational therapists and mental health clinics (Gibson et al., 2014). Furthermore, these mobile
health clinics might put up educational campaigns in rural areas, which might involve the
gathering of many elderly people. Group discussions, communications and interaction among the
elderly people might help in socialisation (Conroy & Turpin, 2016). Since, the mobile
vaccination clinic contains a range of allied health care professionals, a number of life style
suggestions can be provided to the elderly people, such as the preventive measures to the prevent
influenza infections, literacy about the clinic al manifestation of the disease, literary about
screening of the diseases, education about physical activities and recommendation of a healthy
life (Gibson et al., 2014). Nurses, in multidisciplinary team can act as patient advocates. They
can also provide referrals to important hospital care services or liaise the elderly patients to
Insurance services. As mentioned earlier, the health promotion campaign might involve several

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activities that might facilitate the interaction between the other elderly people suffering from
similar problems. The elderly patients can be insisted to take advantages of the several
opportunities to engage with other people. The main aim of socialisation is to assist the older
adults in an independent living.
How will your service support healthy aging generally?
Mobile clinics have been used for decades to widen healthcare services in many settings
and contexts (Yu et al., 2016). For example, mobile clinics offer free service like blood pressure
checks, blood group testing or blood sugar testing in remote communities, where people do not
get access to the primary health care facilities. In order to accommodate the social cost of the
ageing and the chronic diseases, there is a need of strong primary care service (Verma, Khanna
& Chawla, 2014). Mobile clinics for the polio vaccines has achieved a worldwide success and
has helped to eradicate the virus from many countries. Mobile health clinics are an innovative
model of the health care delivery that could alleviate the health disparities among the vulnerable
population- elderly with chronic disease (Haq & McElhaney, 2014). Every year about 5- 10 %
of older adults gets influenza and in most of the cases it is self-limiting. Although influenza
vaccination is an entirely independent decision, the World Health organization has set a goal that
76 % of the elderly population should be vaccinated against influenza. In most the countries, the
goal is not met. Older adults are the most significant target group for influenza vaccination, 90%
of deaths reported as complications of Influenza (Ciszewski, 2008). Influenza vaccine might be
less effective in preventing illness but might reduce the severity of disease and increasing
complication and deaths. Hence, vaccination should become a routine part of the medical

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consultations. In most of the cases, the elderly people are not well aware of the clinical
manifestation of the disease or are likely to avoid clinics due to the burden of transportation or
due to economic restraints (Gibson et al., 2016). Older adults often does not know how ageing
affects the immune systems even if they are in good health. According to a study involving older
adults, they have admitted that they did not find the urgency to take vaccinations, since their GP
has not recommended it. Again some elderly adults are of the perception that vaccines might
make them sick and they think that if they get a vaccine preventable infection, then that might
pose serious threat to health (Verma, Khanna & Chawla, 2014). In many cases, some adults are
too frail to even go for a screening. Again, elderly with less GP contacts are less likely to receive
any vaccination. Hence, there is an increased need of services like portable vaccination services
to avoid all these problems. An increasing aging population like the one seen in Canada and
other developed countries, suggest a need to prioritize resolution?- to improve health of aging
population, to promote equal care to the elderly population, to prevent them from being the
exposed to infections and chronic diseases (Verma, Khanna & Chawla, 2014). Good health for
aging Canadians can boost their contribution to economic and social activity, helps to balance
any of the economic challenges correlated with aging societies, and allow them to remain active,
engaged and independent members of our communities. Vaccination would not only decrease the
physical and the economic burden of the disease but will also assist the elderly people to live an
independent life and not under the care of a formal or informal care giver (Haq & McElhaney,
2014). It would helping in boosting up the immunity. Several older adults believe, that they
have the ability to reduce and eliminate the risk of the vaccine preventable diseases by eating
good and nutritious food. A healthy life style might reduce the chance of vaccine preventable
disease but necessarily does not eliminate this. Regular uptake of vaccines during adulthood or

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retirement can improve the well-being of many Canadians (Busby, 2018). It is hence
recommended to get the vaccination at each of the visits, to the educate the adults in
vaccination. Influenza vaccination mobile clinic will provide convenience for most of the aging
population.

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References
Busby, C. (2018, April 15). Not Just for Kids: How to Improve Adult Vaccination Uptake in
Canada. C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, (509), COV+. Retrieved from
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/apps/doc/A543466110/CPI?
u=rpu_main&sid=CPI&xid=e117080c
Ciszewski, A. (2008). Why young healthy adults should become a target group for the influenza
Vaccination: A cardiologist's point of view. Vaccine, 26(35), 4411-4412.
doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.06.078
Verma, R., Khanna, P., & Chawla, S. (2014). Vaccines for the elderly need to be introduced into
the immunization program in India. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 10(8),
2468–2470. doi:10.4161/hv.29254
Haq, K., & McElhaney, J. E. (2014). Immunosenescence: influenza vaccination and the elderly.
Current opinion in immunology, 29, 38-42.
Yu, S., Hill, C., Ricks, M. L., Bennet, J., & Oriol, N. E. (2017). The scope and impact of mobile
health clinics in the United States: a literature review. International journal for equity in
health, 16(1), 178. doi:10.1186/s12939-017-0671-2
Gibson, B. A., Ghosh, D., Morano, J. P., & Altice, F. L. (2014). Accessibility and utilization
patterns of a mobile medical clinic among vulnerable populations. Health & place, 28,
153-166.

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Conroy, S. P., & Turpin, S. (2016). New horizons: urgent care for older people with frailty. Age
and ageing, 45(5), 577-584.