A major policy and social challenge in the European Union is the ageing of the population, and the need to ensure quality Long Term Care for the increasing numbers of dependent young and older citizens. Care providers can be formal (health professionals) or informal (mostly family members). A family caregiver is “anyone, women or men, who is not a professional caregiver but, by default or choice, cares for a dependent person in his/her immediate circle” (European Charter for Family Carers). Family carers across the EU provide over 80% of all care, with women providing approximately two thirds of care, often at the expense of their own personal, family and/or work life (European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, 2010). Care giving role can be very hard due to the complexity of situations which they have to deal with and due to the time consumed (which can reach more than 16 hours a day). For this reason, it is increasingly important to address the multidimensional burdens associated with informal caregiving. There is a phenomenon called «caregiver stress» characterized by the reduced hours of sleep, insomnia, neglect of self-care and consequent fatigue, concentration difficulties, anxiety, irritability, depression, emotional stress, frustration, annulment of social life, etc. Caregiver Burden has both objective and subjective components. The objective components are the demands, to which the caregiver is exposed because of caring for the dependent person. The subjective component is the way the caregiver perceives the caregiving tasks: his or her emotional response to the experience of caring for a family member. Moreover, there are studies that demonstrate the influence of poor social support in caregiver burden (AA.VV, Apoyo Social ¿mejora el cansancio del cuidador?, 2004). There upon, burden symptoms can be controlled and even reverted by reinforcing emotional Intelligence and social support. The PeerCare project aims to contribute to reduce the “caregiver stress” symptoms by spreading a new approach for delivering informal training, feedback, and support to family caregivers, through an online peer networking community with access to a training itinerary to improve Emotional Intelligence. The learning pathway, based on gamification approach, focuses on three main attributes that define Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation. The target public are: - The family caregivers: generally, wife/husband, who take care of their partner, or either descendants that take care of their parents; most of them are 50+ and in general they are females. - Supporter of family caregivers: persons who professionally or as volunteers, work with family caregivers providing them help, counselling and formal or informal training. 5 organisations from 4 European countries shared together their different experience and skills to develop, implement and evaluate a “Peer training on Emotional Intelligence for informal caregivers” aim at enhancing informal caregivers’ personal capacities, thus reducing the negative effects of daily caregiving tasks at emotional, social and physical level. Moreover, a Handbook “Emotional Intelligence for informal caregivers - Training for trainers” was developed for persons who, in a formal or informal way, as professionals or volunteers, work with family caregivers and want to reach both objectives to improve their Emotional Intelligence and enhance their social network.
The aging of the European population and the need to guarantee quality care for growing number of dependent young and old citizens is one of the greatest political and social challenges for the European Union. People dedicated to caring for these groups can do it formally (health care professionals) or informally (mostly family members). An informal or family caregiver is "any person, man or woman, who is not a professional caregiver but who, by default or by choice, cares for a dependent person in her immediate circle" (European Charter for Family Caregivers) Family caregivers in the EU provide more than 80% of all care for dependents, and of these, about a third are women, who provide care often at the expense of their own personal, family and / or work life. The care role can be very difficult due to the complexity of the situations they have to face, and the time consumed (which can exceed 16 hours a day). For this reason, it is increasingly important to address the multidimensional burdens associated with informal care. There is a phenomenon called "caregiver stress" characterized by reduced hours of sleep, insomnia, neglect of self-care and consequent fatigue, concentration difficulties, anxiety, irritability, depression, emotional stress, frustration, cancellation of social life, etc. The caregiver burden has both objective and subjective components. The objective components are the demands to which the caregiver is exposed for the care of the dependent person. The subjective component is the way the caregiver perceives the care tasks: their emotional response to the experience of caring for a family member. In addition, there are studies that demonstrate the influence of poor social support on the burden or stress of the caregiver (AA.VV, Social Support, does it improve caregiver fatigue?, 2004). From there, the symptoms of the burden can be controlled and even reversed by reinforcing emotional intelligence and social support. In this context, the PeerCare project has been developed to achieve the main objective of contributing to reduce the symptoms of "caregiver stress" through the creation of a Peer Training in Emotional Intelligence (EI) for informal caregivers (IO1) that offers a complete learning environment, which revolves around 3 main elements: - A training itinerary, made up of 5 thematic modules focused on the three main attributes that define EI: self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation. - A set of varied learning resources (videos, lessons, case studies, games), designed to facilitate flexible, dynamic, and motivating access. - An online peer community, which offers a space for the exchange of experiences, resources, and peer learning. Likewise, with the aim of providing the professionals / volunteers who support these informal caregivers with resources and tools to train them in the field of EI, the Manual "Emotional Intelligence for informal caregivers: training of trainers" (IO2) has been designed. With a theoretical-practical approach, the manual includes instructions and tips for organizing training sessions with family caregivers, a part of theoretical ideas and concepts around core elements of EI, and tools to use in class (11 studies case study and 7 practical activities) The direct target groups of the project have been: - Family caregivers: people who take care of their partners, descendants who take care of their parents; or people who care for relatives or close dependents. - Family caregiver support staff: people who, professionally or voluntarily, work with family caregivers, providing help, advice and formal or informal training. The direct participation of these groups has been transversal and constant throughout the project, gathering their feedback during: - The needs analysis (IO1 and IO2) - 161 people participated in focus groups, were interviewed, or completed the questionnaires. - The testing activities of the developed prototypes (IO1 and IO2) - 218 people participated in these activities and gave their feedback through questionnaires and interviews. - The multiplier events (6) - 198 people participated in the different sessions organized by the project partners in their countries. This direct impact on the target groups has been expanded with more than 163 dissemination actions carried out which, through different channels and formats, have reached more than 80,000 people. The availability of the two project products openly on the web, and their availability in 6 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Turkish) facilitates their use, both by the participating organizations (which have incorporated these training resources to their day-to-day life) as well as by third-party organizations that have shown interest on them.