CONTEXT OF THE SEE ME PROJECT The population in Europe is ageing and the number of older citizens is growing. Consequently, projections predict an increase in care needs. Literature points towards 2 main challenges. First, older adults with care needs are susceptible to social exclusion. This is in particular true for older adults with a migration background or in poor financial situations. Second, there are growing challenges in professional care services (i.e., overburdened workforce, budget cuts). Currently the focus in professional care is on the medical and physical aspects of care, from a deficit-approach (looking at what older adults cannot do anymore). However, lots of caregivers are convinced an innovative paradigm-shift is needed towards a positive approach (looking at dreams and talents of older people), and towards caring for social and meaning needs. However, they often lack the competences for this as this is not part of their professional training. Nor does a lifelong learning-course on these topics exist. OBJECTIVES OF THE SEE ME PROJECT The overall objective of the SEE ME project is to improve the quality of care and social inclusion for older adults (with an additional focus on older adults with a migration background or in poor financial situations). Therefore, the SEE ME project aims to increase the competences of different groups of caregivers (volunteers, informal and formal caregivers) and trainers of carers in order to provide quality care to older adults with a focus on social inclusion trough meaningful ageing. Competences of caregivers should be innovated to "SEE Older adults": - to SEE the older person behind the patient, - to SEE care as something more than physical and medical care, and SEE social and meaning care, - to SEE the positive talents and dreams of older adults, not only their needs. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY Concretely, in order to realise these innovative objectives, the SEE ME project will develop new learning and training materials for carers (informal and formal), volunteers and trainers of carers. In specific this is realised through 6 intellectual outputs: - IO1: European research report on optimizing caregiving skills and competences by “SEEing social and meaning needs, talents and dreams of older adults” - IO2: “Education for see me model” - IO3: "European SEE ME training toolkit: on optimizing caregiving skills and competences by “SEEing social and meaning needs, talents and dreams of older adults” - IO4: "European SEE ME training course: training on how to use the training toolkit (3 day-course in Italy)" - IO5: 6 different learning area’s test and implement the European SEE ME training toolkit within their organisations (different care organisations; nursing homes or extra-mural care). - IO6: cross-national evaluation of the learning-areas Goal is really to have a transnational toolkit, which is born from transnational ideas and experiences. And which is tested in the different countries. There will be 4 transnational meetings, 1 European Pilot Training, 6 national multiplier events, and intensive dissemination in order to ensure sustainable use of the toolkit and in order to spread the results of the project. All intellectual outputs will be made freely available for a minimum prolonged period of 5 years through the online learning platform. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The SEE ME consortium consists of 6 different partners (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain): 3 research centres and 3 professional organizations. Furthermore, 5 associated partners are involved within the project. These are different care organizations with a mix of intramural and extramural care. Different target groups will be involved during this project and consists of: informal carers, formal cares, volunteers, trainers of carers, older adults (with a migration background or in poor financial situations), management and policy makers. RESULTS, IMPACT, LONGER TERM BENEFITS The project will result in an evidence-based, user-experienced, user-tested and user-friendly training model and toolkit. Awareness and competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) will be raised on - How to care broader than the classical medical-physical paradigm - Social and meaning needs of older care recipients - Starting care from the dreams and talents of older adults. This will result in the longer term in increased quality of care and social inclusion of caregivers and older adults.
SEE ME challenges the stereotypes of older people through training aimed at seeing the talents and strengths of the oldest citizens. Competences of caregivers should be innovated to ‘SEE older people’: SEE the older person behind the client; SEE care as something more than physical and medical care, and SEE social and meaningful care; SEE the positive talents and dreams of older people, not only their needs. The project pays extra attention to older people with a migration background or in a poor financial situation. The SEE ME training toolkit was developed to reach the aims of the homonymous project. This training toolkit was compiled from (1) the research report on optimizing caregiving skills and competencies by ‘SEEing social and meaning needs, talents and ideals of older people’ and (2) the ‘Education for SEE ME model’. Participants experienced - active engagement in the project and outputs; - added value of the cross-national approach and learn to recognize and value the similarities and dissimilarities between countries, countries’ systems; - motivation and co-ownership of the project and outputs; - motivation to act as ambassadors of the projects.
The population in Europe is ageing, and the number of older adults is growing. Consequently, projections predict an increase in care needs. The literature points towards 2 main challenges. First, older adults with care needs are susceptible to social exclusion. This is particularly true for older adults with a migration background or in poor financial situations. Second, professional care focuses on the medical and physical aspects of care, from a deficit approach, looking at what older adults can no longer do. However, many caregivers are convinced an innovative paradigm shift is needed towards a positive approach (looking at the dreams and talents of older adults) and caring for social and meaning needs. The SEE ME project aims to improve the quality of care and social inclusion for older people. It does this through a training toolkit that increases the skills and competencies of different groups of caregivers (volunteers, informal and formal caregivers) and trainers of caregivers to provide quality care to older people. In this training toolkit, through five modules participants explore different ways to better see the social and meaning-making needs of older people.