Alzheimer patients are increasing all over Europe. This disease carries also a dangerous risk of social exclusion for families and professionals. The project aims to empower professionals and organizations to adopt a multidimensional model of intervention, integrating social and health actors, to empower communities and providing to families and patients a 360° process of care. Through the exchange of practices and the possibility given by the project to know better single experiences thanks to meeting and job shadowing, partners will identify a shared package of activities to promote in single countries focused to empower professionals and families competencies to achieve customized goals and promote effective inclusion into community. This will bring less hospitalization and a better quality of life at home for patients and caregivers. Furthermore the multidimensional approach will give the professionals a different organization of work and more support against burn-out. Thanks to the peculiarities of each partner, the project will be able to offer an effective exchange of expertise and experience to build a shared and efficient model of intervention to replicate and disseminate over Europe and, mostly, an operative model of intervention which will be adopted by the partnership as process of care at the end of the project.
Context/Background The project took place after all the partners were aware about the increasing of Alzheimer and Dementia cases among European countries and, as a result of this, the need to face many critical situations among carers, families and professionals of social exclusions. Taking care of Alzheimer patients is a very hard job for families that see their daily life completely changed. As organizations working in health and social field, partners have to face this problem daily. European countries, especially the ones involved in to the project, adopted special plan to provide special care and cure to the patients but social exclusion is an important issue to face. During the project the COVID 109 pandemic status broke the activities and the lockdown we all lived, put in evidence more and more how much is important to keep in touch people and support the fragile part of the society. The partners had to revisited the project and focus their attention on the methods to grant care and avoid that families remained alone. Safety become the first issue for professionals as they paid a great tribute of lives, especially in Italy. The impact of COVID gave to the partners something more about motivation and the possibility to discover great resources not considered before. Objectives During the project, either at the beginning or during the lockdown, social and psychological issues in terms of dangerous risks of social exclusions for several families and citizens as well as for professionals too, often involved in burn out dynamics, become one of the most important issues together with safety of care. Partners worked to find the way to empower professionals and caregiver with a more inclusive point of view in terms of designing their processes of care; saving, in the same time, the "capacity" to live and be part of their communities as members. Especially during the lockdown and until now, partners exchanged their daily results working on the field, creating the conditions to define a shared method to face the problem with a 360° approach, opening a channel of discussions and mutual support among each partners and their local network. This is a work in progress due the nature of the topic and, mostly, the COVID 19 pandemic still existing. Target groups The project engaged professionals, volunteers, families, caregivers, municipalities, health authorities. In the first part of the project as foreseen through the meetings but after, with the restrictions related to the lockdown, only on line. Transnational value Partnership effectively worked as a learning organization, with open mind and the awareness to be one community and not different countries. Each partner tried, even during the lockdown, to mainstream the project's topic in its local local network. Partners wrote a Handbook to gather shared answers to face the most important issues of the project. COVID changed our perspective and our way to provide care. Situations are in full evolution and the mistakes are always possible. Surely, the project brought to all the participants shared value of solidarity and strenthened the value of an open and inclusive society among all the whole partnership. Description of undertaken activities The partnership run the project as foreseen until the COVID lockdown. With the restrictions activities stopped for a while and after started again but with great limitations and difficulties. Anyway all the expected results have been achieved through the LTT and the transnational meetings done. At the end only the final meeting was on line and partners did the 71% of the job shadowing foreseen. Results and impact attained Partners worked like a learning organization, promoting shared models of interventions, exchanging best practices, experiences, processes of care, studies and so on through the constant exchange of informations between professionals and families. The work done produced an easy Handbook with the most important issues to provide care in safety. Some partners, Italian specifically, adopted one off the method shared to integrate their offer of services at local level with interesting results. Very interesting was the work done to motivate and to support the professionals involved in their daily day during this last period with COVID. Anyway the work is not finished as COVID is introducing new issues every day. Longer-term benefits The problems related to the care of Alzheimer patients are great and not easy to face. COVID increased the need to empower the welfare system introducing more attention to social issues. Partners believe that this experience of working will give them great benefits in longer-terms. Partners empowered their own networks and strengthened their capacities to play differently as the situation changes. Mostly partners learned how to work together and, during these difficult times, it's a great issue and the most important instrument.