Press Release

 

As part of ACS's Corporate Social Responsibility strategy to support vulnerable social groups, the company supports the Thallo program, aiming at improving the social and mental well-being of older people living in nursing homes.

Specifically, since February 2021, when cooperation with "thalo" started, the company has sponsored all equipment shipments to non-profit nursing homes in 22 areas throughout Greece, as part of the program’s action "weekly entertainment meetings via video conference in non-profit care facilities for the elderly of mainland and island Greece”. Depending on the needs of each facility, the necessary equipment for teleconferencing is shipped (Laptop / Tablet, external microphones / speakers, headphones, HDMI cables, WiFi signal amplifiers), as well as the book "365 days close to the Third Age" with more of 2,500 stimuli and activities for the elderly and people living with dementia.

The application of the "thalo" method, which is a combination of recreational activities with the active participation of its guests in the facilities, presents to date great results in the daily lives of the elderly and people living with dementia. Some of these are: reducing confusion and stress, improving mood swings, reducing the feeling of being institutionalized, avoiding or improving depressive episodes. Furthermore, it stimulates concentration and aids memory, two of the most basic mental functions.

About 800 people living in the facilities, with an average age of over 80, benefit from the relevant shipments every week, while the largest percentage of them, about 85% of the guests of each facility, live with some form of dementia. During the week of leisure meetings, even more people benefit through the Isolated Listening Method developed by Thallo, about which health professionals have been informed, trained and applied. It is noted that since March 2020, due to the Covid-19 virus and the restriction of visits to the relevant structures for the safety of the beneficiaries, the action of "thalo" has been adapted and implemented digitally through technological means.

ACS will continue to support such actions, in the framework of the Corporate Social Responsibility program implemented by the company in recent years, which focuses on 4 social pillars: emergency response / natural disaster and nationwide actions, nature protection, the strengthening of quality education and the promotion of our cultural heritage and last of all the support of vulnerable social groups.

 

About thallo

Thalo is a non-pharmacological psychosocial intervention aiming at the elderly people and people living with dementia. It was developed by the actors Notis Paraskevopoulos and Konstantina Maltezou through many years of contact with the elderly people and people living with dementia, a study of their needs, daily life and desires. It is a combination of communication and recreational actions that are implemented through the Principle of Associative Thinking, which they have developed and are adapted to the dynamics and needs of each group of beneficiaries, in order to participate actively and not passively. The purpose is not only to entertain but also to encourage the development of relationships of trust and extroversion. Parallel to the main axis and directly connected to it is the Isolated Listening Method, where the elderly come in contact with selected hearings related to their social history. Indicative results of this approach - especially in people living with dementia - are the observation of new kinesiological patterns, the correct synthesis of sentences and the presence of elementary speech in patients who have lost their speech. More about the program: https://thallo.care/to-programma/