Transnational learning to increase support for the elderly

In an ageing society caring for the elderly becomes an increasing challenge because of the relative decrease of the number of young people available to work in health care sector. Keeping grandma’s and grandpa’s as long as possible away from an intake in an old peoples home is a way to manage a shortage of nurses. Not surprisingly, staying at your own home in your familiar environment is exactly what you want when growing old. The Prevention measures pilot of the municipality of Stadskanaal as implemented in the DC NOISE project is precisely about this issue.

Would you like to grow old in this house? Do you need any help with your paperwork? Do you take part in social events? Do you need the help of a gardener or a handyman? These are some of the questions asked by voluntary senior advisors to almost 200 elderly over seventy years of age in the municipality. To keep the elderly at home as long as possible, it is important to know in detail what they need now and in the future. Especially when the range of services in remote and rural areas is decreasing, it is necessary to develop new methods of services and support to help them keep their independency. Apart from the questionnaire, the voluntary senior advisers have given advice and information about preventive measures.

The DC Noise partner East-Flanders strongly relates to the Stadskanaal initiative. It was decided to conduct house calls to all inhabitants over eighty years of age for the first time in Flanders. At the same time these municipalities have introduced a transport service to and from local service centers for the 80+ inhabitants. In one municipality a system is introduced of nightly visits to check up on elderly people and provide care, in order to relieve the burden of caretaking relatives and friends and thereby enabling prolonged living in their own environment. This pilot project is also directly connected to experiences from a transnational meeting in Northern Holland. The municipalities Destelbergen, Merelbeke, Maldegem and Nazareth join forces in this pilot.

The results and needs of elderly will be registered so that there will be a follow-up of the help requests after the house visits. Setting up the registration system and organizing the communication between the different health organizations is a current challenge. One of the conclusions of the Dutch questionnaires so far is the striking loneliness of elderly and the need for social contacts. In addition to this is the issue of lack of information about existing facilities to have these contacts. Information and communication concerning these means is something to improve both in Holland and Flanders.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has issued a concise publication about the implications of demographic change on the need for social services. The publication combines theory and practice and makes for worthwhile reading. Download link: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2008/106/en/1/EF08106EN.pdf

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