Demographic aging is one of the most serious challenges for Europe. The scale of this phenomenon and limitations in the access to institutional care for the elderly means that a rapid, professional and integrated on a European scale the development of informal care services is necessary. Currently, about 60% of carers of the elderly are the closest family. These carers, while providing home care, usually have their own intuition and life experience, and not proven, substantive theoretical and practical knowledge. The project HomeCare for Dependent Elderly People - Educational Path for Informal Carers - HomeCare is a response to the existing and deepening skills gap in the provision of home care for the elderly by adults from their close environment. The aim of the project is to strengthen the care skills (knowledge and skills) of adults-informal carers in home care over dependent older people and provide professional, personalized and relationship-based home care educational path for informal carers of elderly people. As part of the HomeCare project, two key results will be created: -The Training Pathway for Home Care for the Elderly for Informal Carers, which assumes a holistic approach to the issue of caring for an elderly dependent at home, i.e. provides basic knowledge and skills in caring and proactive approach to aging. -Open online course for Informal Carers of Older People at Home (MOOC), which is intended to equip adults with necessary competences (knowledge and skills) to act as carers for dependent elderly people. An adult-homecare carer will get open, universal access to a modular course that develops the care skills of older people through informal learning. Professionalizing the services of informal carers will complement and support the institutional care system for the elderly at their place of residence and in a more individualized way, which is particularly important and needed in the context of demographic forecasts.
The aim of the HomeCare project was: -improving care skills (knowledge and abilities) of adult informal caregivers in providing home care for dependent elderly people -ensuring a personalized and relationship-based learning process for informal caregivers in home care for older people -promoting lifelong learning, among others by offering flexible learning modes for adults in the form of an open online educational platform. The main core of the HomeCare project was to make it possible for adult informal caregivers to prepare for active ageing in a professional way and to participate in the ageing processes of their loved ones through the HomeCare open educational platform that will supplement their knowledge and skills in this area, and above all will provide them with proven substantive knowledge and information on topics adapted to the specifics of work and the function of an informal home caregiver for the elderly.
The HomeCare project was a response to the existing and widening lack of a competency in providing home care for the elderly by adults in their close surroundings, who, having no professional training, become informal caregiver for the elderly. This deficiency of professional knowledge and skills in performing care functions usually results from the need to handle a completely new situation. Becoming a caregiver of a loved one is frequently not an independent choice of a person, but it happens as a result of a sudden event or a problem developing over time due to a health condition of the person under care. Hence, the initiative to create an training path and educational resources for self-learning developing the caring skills of adults who are informal caregivers for the elderly at home. The HomeCare project was a response to the challenges related to demographic change, an aging society and the extension of life cycle, which means that the number of people from the environment of older people who play the role of informal caregivers is increasing. And this means a great burden (physical and mental) for the caregiver who often reconciles the care of an elderly person with work.