Lucky you – getting older in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Lucky you – getting older in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The ageing of Europe’s population is a challenge for the 21st Century. Ageing well is a frequently used concept, describing the objectives of future elderly care. Enabling elderly people to live longer and independently in their own homes is one goal for society as a whole. Empowerment of older persons is needed. It is a process of strengthening, whereby individuals (but also organizations and communities) get a grip on their own situation.

There are already tested and efficient screening instruments (geriatric risk profile) to detect elderly people who are at risk to developing dependency. The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment – CGA measures the risk on five items and is a clinical management strategy which gives a framework for the delivery of interventions in these items. The items, measured by the CGA, are situated into the social, functionality, cognition, depression and nutrition field. Extensive research proves that CGA in hospitals increases independence and reduces early mortality. Another research shows that those who underwent CGA on a hospital or care home ward had a 30% higher chance of being well and in their own home at six months’ follow-up period. What is described above is known, but is rarely applied in practice; there is a gap between research and practice, and the bridge between is education.

The aim of Lucky you project was to develop a European Study Program (as a result “Ageing at Home – the Best Choice”) with practical methods and materials for social and health care providers as well as students to improve their knowledge for supporting aging population´s empowerment. The project was based on the CGA’s items. They gave a solid theoretical and scientific base for the transfer of innovation and development work.

Five Thematic Meetings around the CGA items were organized by the partners: HBO IC DIEN VZW (BE), IES Manuel Gutierrez Aragon (ES), Hyria (FI), SZSVZS (CZ) and Riga University (LV). The coordinator, Jyväskylä Educational Consortium (FI) organized the kick-off meeting and Akureyri Hospital (IS) was responsible for the meeting concerning testing the plans and giving a multi-professional point of view.

The items were selected to each country according to their prior knowledge, research, practice or specified needs. Some were familiar with their field of CGA, some acquired the ideas and methods during this project; peer learning was one of the key issues and proved to be a very significant element to all.

Prior to each meeting, collection of material was done by interviewing the elderly in each country (by students), gathering information on most recent studies and mainly used practices (run by the experts) as well as collecting teaching methods and priorities (by teachers). Extra attention was paid to preventing possible failures in elderly persons’ lives at home. The data was studied, discussed and analyzed during the meetings according to each thematic field.

The webpage www.luckyyou.eu includes a material bank with all the study material, interview videos of the elderly in each partner country, documentary film and trailer “Lucky you – getting older in Europe”. It can be freely and publicly used for the next six years. The study program is translated into all partner languages. The aim is also to increase material in the website by all users. The study program resulted much wider and more profound than was planned and it can be used by educators in several study levels, and even by voluntary workers. Pedagogically, it is variable in many ways and situations and it can be used either as a complete program or only in thematic study units.

The results are disseminated in all the partner countries in the educational institutes with Social and Health Care studies or in elderly care organizations as well as NGO’s. The partners will inform their students, colleagues, superiors, working life partners and shareholders, accordingly. A European Union level Release Event on the new Study Program on Empowering the Elderly (Multiplier Event) was held in Belgium in June 2018. In the long run, increasing the knowledge, skills and competence on the education of elderly care, the healthy and happy years of the European elderly will be increased.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 205549,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

Jyväskylän koulutuskuntayhtymä & Country: FI

Project Partners

• HBO IC DIEN VZW
• IES Manuel G. Aragón
• Hyria koulutus Oy
• RIGAS STRADINA UNIVERSITATE
• Sjúkrahusid a Akureyri
• Vyssi odborna skola zdravotnicka a Stredni skola zdravotnicka, Usti nad Labem, Palachova 35, prispevkova organizace