Training of Informal Caregivers in Elderly Care Erasmus Project

Project Title

Training of Informal Caregivers in Elderly Care

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Health and wellbeing; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Aim of this project was to create a unique, innovative and interactive education module including software applications and written publications which will enhance the abilities of informal caregivers in elderly care, within the bio-psychological approach. With this project, it is intended to develop an educational methodology, having social perspectives, within the European Union (EU) to improve, share and apply qualified teaching, training, and learning strategies and experiences promoting social benefits and innovations. Adult people who take primary care of a 65-year-old and above individual with chronic diseases and have not received any training on the care of elderly people were targeted.
The primary objectives of the project were;
– To determine the needs of the caregivers in elderly care
– To provide learning, training, teaching activities by developing educational module (written and visual) for informal caregivers
– To create a web portal for knowledge transfer between informal care givers and health professionals and among informal caregivers
– To create an elderly care knowledge center for informal caregivers and public dissemination of the education module.
Project included 7 work packages including literature review, needs analysis, development of training program, creating mobile applications, pilot testing, analysis of the impact of the training program and dissemination. Five transnational meetings and four short-term learning training teaching visits were performed during project period.
In order to reach project objectives following activities were performed:
– A systematic review of the literature on methodologies used to identify effect of different types of training on informal caregivers and their elderly were performed. Findings from systematic review revealed that support interventions for caregivers can be effective in reducing caregivers’ stress, with a consequent improvement of the quality of care.
– A qualitative research was done to explore the experiences and needs of informal caregivers in four countries: Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands and Turkey. Informants of the qualitative research were adult people who take primary care of a 65-year-old and above individual with chronic diseases. A purposeful sampling was applied in each country. Data were collected from a total of 72 (Turkey: 24, Lithuania: 12, the Netherlands: 20 and Italy: 16) informal caregivers using the focus group or individual interview techniques. The semi-structured interviews were conducted in their mother language and inductive content analysis was performed to analyse the data in all countries.
-The training module were developed to improve the informal caregivers’ abilities and capabilities in elderly care. Educational module topics were derived from qualitative interview data with 72 individuals from four countries. Under physical care and psycho-social issues modules seven subjects were defined: 1-Providing self-care; 2-Fall prevention, exercise, moving and transfer; 3- First aid, 4-Nutrition, 5-Psycho-social changes, 6-Communication with elderly, 7-Burnout and coping with stress. Training modules context were transferred to the project website: http://www.traceproje.eu/training
-For the implementation of the educational modules, total of seven hours’ educational contents were delivered as group education over three days. Four educational programs were conducted with 31 participants and their evaluation were positive. Participants stated the benefits from participating in this program were; an increase in their awareness, a feeling that they were not alone and the sharing of problems with others experiencing the same difficulties, they became more patient with the elder person. Some participants also reflected that they realized their wrong knowledge about first aid practices. Suggestions to improve online educational modules were ‘having interactive discussions and user friendly format’; ‘adding useful numbers and links for resources (emergency centers, geriatric centers, institutions providing social support).
-Several educational meetings/seminars were organised by each partners. An ‘International Congress on Multidisciplinary Approach to Elderly Health and Care’ was held in Ankara, Turkey, 22-23 March 2018. We have presented our findings to all related stakeholders, universities, related government organizations, NGOs and local governors.
This project provided overall impact on informal caregivers in elderly, local communities, educational institutions and national/international organizations to widen their horizons by experiencing different European cultures and expand their personal knowledge of different communities; learned different educational and health systems.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 145065 Eur

Project Coordinator

Baskent University & Country: TR

Project Partners

• LIETUVOS SVEIKATOS MOKSLU UNIVERSITETAS
• Uluslararasi Yaslilara Saygi Federasyonu
• Etimesgut Belediyesi
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
• ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM
• Geriatri Hemsireligi Dernegi
• ImOnTech Bilisim Ltd. Sti.