Visitors to the Festival of Science tried to grow old

Although we are getting older, statistics show that Czechs spend up to a quarter of their lives in illness accompanied by some type of functional disease. Various ailments naturally affect people as they grow older and most seniors suffer from long-term illnesses and difficulties that are easily overcome by the young, but can be a major obstacle for the elderly and significantly affect their quality of life.

Visitors to the Festival of Science held at the Brno Exhibition Centre last weekend at the Masaryk University Faculty of Medicine could experience "what it is like to be old". Students of the General Nursing programme with Dr Natalia Beharkova from the Institute of Health Sciences dressed the curious visitors in a suit for simulating ageing, which creates the illusion of old age, allowing them to put themselves in the shoes of the elderly and understand their feelings and possible difficulties. To complete the illusion, the head of the Department of Optometry and Orthoptics, Associate Professor Pavel Beneš, presented aids for simulating various visual impairments that can be encountered (not only) in old age.

"The interest of the visitors was huge, all ages came to us. Many people appreciated the opportunity to try out for themselves how difficult it can be at a more advanced age to do nowadays quite natural and commonplace tasks such as washing hands, handling a wallet, a pen or walking and sitting. The experience of simulating a visual impairment suffered by someone in their environment was interesting for many of the newcomers. We appreciate the interest of all the visitors and we are glad that our activity was positively evaluated," agree our representatives who presented the Faculty of Medicine at the Science Festival over the weekend.

The queue of people interested in trying out some of the tools that medical students come into contact with during their teaching was practically endless. Hundreds of people tried on the whole suit set or at least some of its parts or special glasses during the weekend. Several festival participants even expressed interest in demonstrating the aging simulation model and related activities at their own workplace or school. In addition to the unusual simulation experience, visitors to our booth also took away the so-called I.C.E. card, or senior envelope, which is designed to provide important information in situations of distress and threat to health or life.

This year, the Science Festival was held for the twenty-first time and more than ten thousand people visited it during the three days. In addition to the aging and visual impairment simulation on Friday, the Faculty of Medicine also offered an interactive outreach program provided by Nutritional Therapy students and medics associated with the Co-Safe Project. Interested participants also had the opportunity to learn about selected faculty projects, whether it be the Junior Academy or the Donate(yourself) campaign, or to obtain useful information for potential applicants.