The ageing of Europe’s population is a challenge for the 21st Century. Today, the mean life expectancy in Europe is more than 80 years. 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. It is a great challenge for health care providers to achieve elderly care of high quality and to develop products, services and technologies that meet the needs of elderly people. 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. If there is a risk for elderly people, it is not difficult to determine which domain an older person mostly needs support for empowerment. 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 Lucky you project aims at developing a European Study Program 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 in order to guarantee a healthy and active life. The project is based on the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment´s five items. Those items give a solid theoretical and scientific base for the transfer of innovation and development work now planned. Five Thematic Meetings around the CGA items on social, functionality, cognition, depression and nutrition fields will be organized. Participants of each partner will in turn take care of the preparations and arrangements of the meetings and themes. The items are selected to each country according to their prior knowledge, research, practice or specified needs. Some of the partners are already familiar with their field of CGA, some will be acquiring the ideas and methods during this project; peer learning is one of the key issues.Before each meeting, background information is collected in each country using three separate questionnaires (for students, teachers and staff in hospitals/care units). This data is studied, discussed and analyzed during the meetings according to each thematic field. Plans for a study program, separate modules, teaching materials and methods will be developed. The EQAVET Quality Assurance Cycle will be used for quality control. The Study Program itself will be evaluated in the Akureyri Hospital in Iceland in Spring 2018.The meetings will result concrete outputs but also increased experience of sharing ideas and innovations, learning to cooperate in international contexts as well as strengthening each participating organization's international activities. The participants include teachers, students and working life representatives varying from 20 to 24 persons per meeting. The key team of the project consists of 7 people and the coordinator is Jyväskylä educational Consortium, Finland. The other partners come from Latvia, Belgium, Spain, Iceland and The Czech Republic.The results will be disseminated in all the partner countries in the organizations providing VET in Social and Health Care (geriatry) and/or elderly care. The partners will inform their students, colleagues, superiors, working life partners and shareholders, accordingly. The results and material will be of public use and freely modified in European colleges. A European Union level Release Event on the new Study Program on Empowering the Elderly will be 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.
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.