Handbook and Toolkit: Age-friendly education for learning in later life

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

539829-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP

INNOMEC - Innovative Management and Educational Practices in Elderly Care Centres

INNOMEC HANDBOOK & TOOLKIT

English version ISBN 978-88-941400-0-2

Title: “INNOMEC Handbook and Toolkit: Age-friendly education for learning in later life”

French version ISBN 978-88-941400-2-6

Title: “INNOMEC Manuel et Instruments pour une éducation adaptée au grand âge”

German version ISBN 978-88-941400-4-0

Title: “INNOMEC - Handbuch und Toolkit: Bildung im Alter”

Icelandic version ISBN 978-88-941400-6-4

Title: “Handbók og verkfærakista INNOMEC: Þú lærir svo lengi sem þú lifir!”

Italian version ISBN 978-88-941400-8-8

Title: “INNOMEC Manuale e Strumenti: l’educazione amica della grande età”

Lithuanian ISBN 978-88-941400-1-9

Title: “INNOMEC Vadovas ir priemonės: amžiui draugiškas švietimas”

Authors

The project partners of the Grundtvig Multilateral Project “Innomec - Innovative Management and Educational Practices in Elderly Care Centres”, 2013/2015, and in particular, for:

Speha Fresia (IT), Elisabetta Cannova (project coordinator) and Antonella Dessì (speech therapist)

Inspire (AT), Mag. Max Mayrhofer

Euro Idea (BE), Paola Mauro, Danielle Becu and Diego Taccuso

Mykolas Romeris University (LT), Irena Zemaitaityte, Alina Petrauskiene, Leta Dromantiene, and for the chapter “Wellbeing of the older population in INNOMEC countries in the context of European Union: sociodemographic insights” Sarmite Mikulioniene

Hrafnista (IS), Sigurbjörg Hannesdóttir and Soffía Stefanía Egilsdóttir

StudioCentro Veneto (IT), Paolo Zaramella, Lara Scantamburlo and Toni Brunello

Memoro (IT), Lorenzo Fenoglio

IPAB – Principe Palagonia e Conte Ventimiglia (Palermo - IT), Maria Letizia Rainieri, Ercole Francavilla, Alessandro Pizzo, Francesca La Mantia e Maria Novello

Graphic design by

Isabella Schlagintweit

This work is developed under the Creative Commons licenses that allow any user in the world to download, copy, distribute, translate, re-use, adapt, and build on them free of charge: the CC BY SA license. The requirements of this license are:

1. INNOMEC Partners are clearly credited as the owners of the original work, and

2. derivative works may be distributed only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work.

Edited in Rome, October 2015

Acknowledgement

This Handbook and the Toolkit provided to all practitioners engaged in the daily work with older people has been produced by the INNOMEC partnership as a whole, and with the important contributions received by the associate partners and the local key stakeholders involved in the five European countries: Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Italy and Lithuania.

Further contributions come from the external experts Dr. Antonella Dessì, speech therapist in Rome, Dr. Oddur Albertsson, adult education expert and video-maker in Reykjavík, the whole staff of the Bank of Memories “Memoro” based in Turin, and Dr. Diego Taccuso and Dr. Patrick de la Roque, the Belgian experts of the Audio-Psycho-Phonology method.

INNOMEC partners would like to thank all those who volunteered their time and efforts to the INNOMEC project, and in particular all of the social workers, the youth, and the adult education participants engaged in the national pilots and in the European common training session.

We would like to thank the EACEA too, that contributed significantly with the financial support of the Lifelong Learning Programme 2013, as Grundtvig Multilateral Project.

Acronyms

ECC/ECCs - Elderly Care Centre(s)

TBW - Transcultural Biography Work

APP - Transcultural Biography Work

app - Transcultural Biography Work

MEMORO - Transcultural Biography Work

Table of Contents

Colophon

Acknowledgement

Acronyms

Introduction

INNOMEC mission

How to use this manual

Wellbeing of the older population in INNOMEC countries in the context of European Union: sociodemographic insights

Local context of the pilots

AUSTRIA - Graz

BELGIUM - Brussels

ICELAND - Reykjavík

ITALY - Palermo

ITALY - Vicenza

LITHUANIA - Vilnius

Introduction to the three practices

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the APP

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the Transcultural Biography Work (TBW)

How to combine Biography Work with transculturality?

The transcultural focus of Biography Work

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the Digital Interviews MEMORO

Memoro Video interview

Application of practices

AUDIO-PSYCHO-PHONOLOGY (APP)

Cases and experiences

Weak Points

Strong Points

TRANSCULTURAL BIOGRAPHY WORK (TBW)

Cases and experiences

Weak Points

Strong Points

DIGITAL INTERVIEWS (MEMORO)

Cases and experiences

Weak Points

Strong Points

Conclusions and further steps

Bibliography

Austria

Belgium

Iceland

Italy

Lithuania

European and international references

Project partners

Speha Fresia Cooperative Company (Project Coordinator, IT)

inspire – Verein für Bildung und Management (AT)

Euro Idea (BE)

Mykolas Romeris Universite (LT)

Hrafnista – Continuing Care Communities (IS)

Studio Centro Veneto (IT)

INNOMEC GLOSSARY

“I'm an animal of the earth as any human being with virtues and defects,

with mistakes and achievements, so leave me alone.

In my memory, this memory that is me.

I do not want to forget anything.”

(José Saramago, The last notebook, Day 28, Memories)

Introduction

INNOMEC - Innovative Management and Educational Practices in Elderly Care Centres is a Grundtvig Multilateral Project under the Lifelong Learning Programme implemented from November 2013 to October 2015 by partners from Italy (Rome, Palermo, Vicenza and Verona), Austria (Graz), Belgium (Brussels), Lithuania (Vilnius), and Iceland (Reykjavik).

Who might be interested in more deeply and further applying the adult education techniques tested by INNOMEC? Our core target groups are practitioners - workers and volunteers - active and engaged in the social care services within Elderly Care Centres (residential care or daily centres), lifelong learning educators, and trainers for older people and university students in social sciences and andragogy.

These practices are intended to provide beneficial effects for the older guests of ECCs and to stimulate those key actors active in lifelong learning – e.g. managers of elderly centres, people responsible for the staff continued training, developers and providers of qualifications and further training opportunities, private and public associations for elderly people, European and local project managers, providers of individual services for older people, etc. in order to improve the quality of the educational practices among social workers and to encourage local and European networking.

The mix of the traditional practices, such as the narrative and biographical approaches, founded on a “transcultural vision of the societies and of the single persons”, blended with the valorisation of the digital media for fostering the memories transmission (through the Bank of Memory Memoro) or linked to the “Hearing Exercise” proposed by the Audio-Psycho-Phonology method, is the core of INNOMEC idea where intergenerational exchange can be possible and where, Elderly Care Homes/Centres are open to the local communities and are motivated to be more and more actively engaged in the community life.

From our experience we share our findings and conclusions, providing the followed process in the different local contexts, and the new learning opportunities opened by the valorisation of these methods and tools with/for older and younger people.

Our wish is to improve and better valorise the qualitative contributions of social workers in adult learning, in most countries the Cinderella of the health-care system, where health issues and medical competencies play a predominant role, although the announcements of more “integrated and multidisciplinary approaches and services” for an active and healthy aging {1} are advertised.

Innomec Community on Facebook

{1} Strategic Implementation Plan for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing – Steering Group Working Document – Final text adopted by the Steering Group on 17/11/11 (“Collaborative, integrated and people-centred care provisions, whether in hospitals, homes or in the community, is a way forward to sustainable and efficient care systems”, Foreword)

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INNOMEC mission

In most European countries the lifestyle of families has changed: late marriages, low birth rates, single–parent families, and increasing numbers of lonely and elderly people have become prevailing factors. In this scenario social workers and adult educators are facing new challenges: how to better integrate interventions in order to promote the wellbeing of elderly people in a holistic way; how to create new learning environments, especially in elderly care centres by opening their specific educational provisions to local communities; how to foster and improve one`s own personal and professional competencies to increase and diversify educational provision and be more integrated in the local life-long learning community.

NNOMEC is designed to acknowledge the fact that “active ageing is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age” (Global Age Friendly Cities: A guide, World Health Organisation, 2007). We strongly believe that learning in later life is a vital ingredient of active ageing.

We aim to:

improve the participation of elderly people in social and cultural life;

foster mutual learning with younger generations and family members;

reinforce local and European networks with a social responsibility approach, focusing on the contributions of elderly care centres to the lifelong learning strategy.

By testing, developing, and providing:

The peer-to-peer training in Brussels

training opportunities for social workers and adult educators;

new learning experiences for older people;

essential background information for managers of elderly care centres, project managers, and policy makers.

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How to use this manual

This eBook with the narration of the tested pathways during the course of INNOMEC project, is integrated with a set of tools (Toolkit) employable for the further implementations of INNOMEC educational practices in other learning environments and local contexts.

For each practice, and based on the six national pilots (in three different regions in Italy), we have jointly analysed the different educational settings experienced by partners in the different territories. A deeper evaluation is related to the strong and weak points of each practice, in order to have a clear framework for further testing, and to be more aware of the potential realisation barriers, and of the beneficial impacts among participants.

The Toolkit contains:

INNOMEC Repository on the project website

Evaluation forms implemented for different purposes (APP method, TBW & Memoro Observation Sheet, SWOT Grid, Evaluation questionnaires etc.)

Background studies and supporting documents

TBW Manual (link to the PDF in different languages)

EU Training for trainers (background documents/presentations/slides/training materials)

(http://www.INNOMEC.eu)

INNOMEC Community on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/INNOMEC/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel)

INNOMEC YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpV2MWi0w40_08R0FgCIOA

APP Method Video on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUc9ir_E96w

INNOMEC on Memoro platform
www.memoro.org/it/INNOMEC/

Concepts, ideas and findings proposed in this handbook are based on the following demonstration actions realised in the different countries of the partnership:

Country/Region | TBW | APP | MEMORO
Austria | ☑ |  | ☑
Belgium | ☑ | ☑ | ☑
Iceland | ☑ | ☑ | ☑
Italy/Sicily | ☑ |  | ☑
Italy/Lazio |  | ☑ |
Italy/Veneto |  | ☑ | ☑
Lithuania | ☑ | ☑ | ☑

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Wellbeing of the older population in INNOMEC countries in the context of European Union: sociodemographic insights

Continuing population aging in recent decades has spread and became a global phenomenon, therefore now population aging is recognized as one of the most important demographic trends of the 21st century (UNFPA, 2012, link to: http://www.unfpa.org/).

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, 2012) noted that population aging brings us two messages - Celebration and Challenge. The reason to celebrate is associated with the opportunity to live longer lives. The average life expectancy in European Union countries has reached almost 80 years (79.9 in 2013, Eurostat, 2015). Seventeen out of twenty-eight (61 percent) European Union member states have a special occasion to celebrate the achievements of civilization - the average life expectancy of these populations in 2013 was more than 80 years (Fig. 1). To these countries belongs Iceland as well – a partner country of INNOMEC project.

Unfortunately, the new member states of the EU – the Central and Eastern European countries - are still far out of touch with the European leaders. The life expectancy for the Eastern and Central European population in 2013 ranged from 77.5 to 73.4 years (Fig. 1).

The majority of countries participating in the INNOMEC project is characterised by long life expectancy – Italy (82.1 years), Iceland (81.3), Austria (80.5), Belgium (80). Lithuania, which represents Eastern European countries in the project, in terms life expectancy, occupied the lowest position among the project partners, as well as among the European Union member states. Lithuanian population life expectancy in 2013 was only 73.4 years (Eurostat, 2015a).

Population aging is measured by the share of the older population in the total population (Fig. 2). Among countries participating in the INNOMEC project, the country with the highest population of seniors is Italy – people aged 65 and over made up 20.1 percent of the population in 2013 (Eurostat, 2015b).

The older population of Lithuania, Austria and Belgium represented respectively 18.2, 18.1 and 17.6 percent of the total population in 2013. Meanwhile, Iceland’s seniors accounted for only 12.9 percent in the total population. The share of the population aged 65 and over in the European Union at that time was 18.2 percent (Eurostat, 2015b).

According to the latest population projections (Eurostat, 2014), the demographic process of population ageing – the growth of the share of persons aged 65 and over in the total population – will continue in the coming decades.

As in other areas concerning the ageing of the population, there are many important indicators not only quantitative indicators. The growth of the number of years lived, as well as the increasing proportion of older people, raises legitimate concern about the nature of the years, added to the life. It is a question of the quality of life in old age [take part to our POLL N°1 on Innomec.eu]. Will society be able to provide the older generation with resources necessary to ensure a dignified old age (meeting needs of older people's material security, health and social care, education, self-expression)? How can we create one society in which all generations can thrive?

Increasing life expectancy and growing proportion of older persons in the total population forces us to review the communities’ and the governments’ approach to the social and economic role of the older generation, to the satisfaction of their needs, and the detection of their potential. To assess the socioeconomic wellbeing of the older population, in 2013 a new instrument was created with no equivalent – the Global AgeWatch Index (Fig. 3, HelpAge 2013). This instrument is characterized by the following facts: 1) it focuses on the person - an older person; 2) it enables international comparisons to some extent; 3) it provides science-based suggestions and directions how to improve the wellbeing of older people. The Global AgeWatch Index includes 13 indicators grouped into four domains (Fig. 2): income security (4 indicators), health status (3 indicators), employment and education (2 indicators) and enabling environment (4 indicators). The first two domains – income security and health status – reflect older people's wellbeing.

The other two domains reveal the potential of older people. In particular, the third domain – employment and education – is a proxy for enabling attributes of older persons themselves, and the fourth – addresses the enabling environment – enabling environment surrounding older people.

Fig 3. Global AgeWatch Index domains and indicators

Source: HelpAge, 2013

According to the Global AgeWatch Index 2015, INNOMEC partner countries were ranked in the following order: Iceland (81.8 percent out of 100), Austria (74.4 percent), Belgium (63.4 percent), Italy (53.5 percent), and Lithuania (43.2 percent) (HelpAge, 2015). Hence, among INNOMEC partner countries in the best situation were older people of Iceland, where their social and economic wellbeing indicators were of the highest rank. Meanwhile, the situation of the older population in Lithuania was the poorest: among INNOMEC partner countries Lithuania’s rate was the lowest one; and among 96 countries that were ranked by the Global AgeWatch Index Lithuania occupied the 63rd place.

To compare the state of the play in INNOMEC partner countries according to specific domains of the Global AgeWatch Index (Fig. 4), we have developed the welfare diamond measure of seniors by country, each edge of which reflects a certain domain. The bigger the welfare diamond the higher the level of the wellbeing of seniors.

Fig 4. Global AgeWatch Index values according to the index domain, by INNOMEC partner country, 2015, percent{2}

Source: HelpAge, 2015

Figure 4 shows us that the older populations' income security domain (in Fig. 4 it is illustrated by the spire of diamond) was one of the strongest elements of all INNOMEC partners - Iceland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Lithuania. The top spire depicting income security was the most prominent (values ranging from 73.1 to 86.6 percent). Seniors' health status reflected on the diamond's right spike is fairly expressed in Iceland, Austria, Belgium and Italy, where the value of the indicator ranges from 68.7 to 78.7 percent. Meanwhile, Lithuanian seniors’ health status was relatively low - the value of this indicator attained only 44.2 percent. The Employment and education indicator (illustrated by the lower point of the welfare diamond) is not the strength of these countries – in Italy and Belgium the values of this indicator were the lowest (respectively, 28.2 and 32.9 percent) as compared to the other project partners. Relatively high employment and education levels of the older generation were attained by Iceland and Lithuania (respectively 54.5 and 50 percent) while Austria with its 37.6 percent of target value was in the middle position. Measurement of the older generations’ enabling environment (the left spike of the welfare diamond) demonstrated high index values for Austria, Iceland and Belgium (respectively, 82.7, 78.8, and 73.4 percent). According to this domain of the Global AgeWatch Index, Italy and Lithuania are lagging behind (58.5 and 52.6 percent) among INNOMEC partner countries.

The analysis of demographic ageing trends and wellbeing of the older population in INNOMEC partner countries revealed that the situation of the older generation varies largely across countries [take part to our POLL N°2 on Innomec.eu]. Therefore we see the room for the input of our project, the aims of which are: (1) to improve the participation of elderly people in social and cultural life; (2) to foster mutual learning with younger generations and family members; (3) to reinforce local and European networks with a social responsibility approach, focusing on the contributions of elderly care centres to the lifelong learning strategy. We believe that the spread of the results of our project will help to create preconditions for a promotion of wellbeing of older people in a holistic way through increased and diversified of intergenerational learning opportunities and the integration of older people into the local life-long learning community.

{2} Higher index values indicate the higher-level of the wellbeing of older population.

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Local context of the pilots

AUSTRIA - Graz

Activities under INNOMEC have mainly been implemented in the Austrian City of Graz but also in surrounding districts. 21.53% of the inhabitants of Graz are older than 60 (31st March 2015), which totals to nearly 60,000 people. Since 1996 the Municipal Senior`s Office (SeniorInnenbüro Graz), the first of its kind in Austria, caters to elderly people in Graz, who still live independently. Nearly 20,000 elderly people in Graz are older than 75, and likely to live in or visit one of the (day) care centres in Graz, which offer a total of 1,930 places (05/2015). Above that, ambulatory social services support citizens who opt to live in their own homes.

A team of two trainers, Andrea Gaal and Elisabeth Schrattner, worked together in workshops with residents of day care centres and other social facilities to find out about topics of large interest to the elderly. They used creative methods to engage elderly people. An important role is played by the method of transcultural biographical work (TBW). It was used in common talks to exchange memories, record them, and make them available in the form of interviews. Afterwards those interviews were recorded as video or audio-tapes and uploaded to the international database MEMORO (www.memoro.org/at-at) too, a new branch of Memoro in Austria, still missing among the countries’ collection of the Bank of Memory, widening its availability at an international level.

The workshop aimed at revitalizing and re-evaluating elderly participants´ memories, which should be transferred to the present. The individual biographies served as a basis for the process of lifelong learning and the development of future perspectives. Biography based workshops have been offered since February 2015. The modules were held in small groups directly within the premises of the care centres or other places of activities. The first module (lasting about 1.5 hrs) served as preparation for the group. The second module was mostly held individually and lasted about 1 hour per person. Within this module using the method of half-structured interviews the residents were interviewed for an anamnesis. These interviews were taped as videos.

Activities took place in six different settings: seniors café, district office, day care centre, shared flat and assisted living, nursing home, and at home. Altogether 61 individual elderly people took part in 5 pilot group activities (12 modules) and individual activities at home, 37 of them participated twice, 29 of them consented to individual interviews being captured either on video or audio recording. The youngest participant was born in 1949, the oldest in 1919.

Inspire`s two trainers were supported by young people, practitioners and/or people in training and the staff of the visited settings.

Settings:

Day-Care Centre Cristall / Compass Group, Graz Bethlehemgasse, http://www.compass-org.at/

Seniors Department of the City of Graz, Coffee rounds, http://bit.ly/1KcdGiS

District office Eggenlend / WIKI, Graz Eggenberg, https://www.facebook.com/staeggenlend

Assisted Living / Caritas Graz, Leechgasse, http://bit.ly/1Kcdxfl

Retirement home “Menda”, Hartberg, http://www.menda.at/pflege.html

Private homes.

BELGIUM - Brussels

Our pilot was mostly focused on the French speaking part of Belgium and in particular on the city of Brussels and the city of Liège, located in Wallonia (French speaking region). This contextualization heeds the fact that the country is a federation of 3 regions: Brussels Capital, Flanders and Wallonia. The language issue (2 principal languages: French, Dutch plus a German speaking minority) is of paramount importance in this constitutional context and determines a great number of political and administrative differences between the 3 Regions.

Initially our research was orientated along 2 complementary lines:

via the Web to acquire a global vision of the issue of old age in the French-speaking part

via contact persons, with the target to identify host Organizations of the elderly, interested in a dialogue within the context of the INNOMEC project

Through research via the Web we obtained interesting information that we used in the continuation of the project:

the City of Brussels 1000 (one of the 19 Communes of the urban agglomerate) participates in the WHO project “A city for all”;

the ULB (the Free University of Brussels) has a research team working on the problem that concerns our project “Research group ageing, ages and lifetime”.

Public Institutions cooperate on a multilevel scale with the associative groups in order to provide adequate services to the elderly. During the second phase of the project, we contacted the public authorities to preview the management policies and practices of Elderly Care Centres.

The city of Brussels is a microcosm, including 19 municipalities, each with a CPAS (Public Centre for Social Action), managed by a president elected within the municipal council. Every CPAS gives impetus to the social structures they want to promote and in accordance with the needs of their territory. In this context, our first contact was with the CPAS of the Municipality of Forest (one of the 19 municipalities) and this led us to the Centre Val des Roses. During a period of 6 months, a number of experts working in this institution, as well as the managing team were interviewed. The “Maison Val des Roses” mostly hosts seniors suffering from dementia. There are of course cases which are less serious than others and this requires an important differentiation of the services provided. Moreover, the institution is currently going through a reconstruction process of the buildings. It was impossible to organize a group activity in this context. However, during the European Mutual Learning session held in Brussels in June 2014, participants were invited to visit the care home and to share experiences and practices among social workers.

We then contacted the Administration of the Municipality of Schaerbeek, the City Council and the College of Aldermen. Our activities took place in the “Maison des Femmes” of Schaerbeek, an open institution, where all generations are welcome for various emancipatory activities (art exhibitions, movie sessions, workshops…). This is the place where we recorded the video of the workshop to train for listening skills, an example of a didactic training session around Audio-Psycho-Phonology [link to the video on YouTube].

We also presented our programme at the “Centre d’Animation de Quartier Biloba” where intergenerational activities take place, at the “Centre Résidentiel poor Seniors Albert de la Tour”, both in Schaerbeek and at the Orpéa Residence “Le Sagittaire” located in the Municipality of Uccle.

We contacted the centre “Le Monde des Possibles” in Liège, an institution for lifelong learning, located in the Wallonia-Brussels federation, an institution with which we already had been collaborating. We presented the APP method in their multicultural and intergenerational context of language acquisition. We have started a collaboration with them in this field.

Thanks to the support of the deputy responsible for the department of Education, Culture and Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Schaerbeek, a bilingual community, who assured us of her appreciation, to pursue our activities for Dutch speaking citizens, we also presented the APP in the Dutch Region, in Antwerp, where the institutions manifested a lively interest.

On the whole, our activities mostly took place in open institutions, for intergenerational groups of valid seniors and younger participants of various cultural backgrounds.

According to the observations of the “Bureau Fédéral du plan – Région de Bruxelles-Capitale” the seniors (from 65 up to 80 and more) represented 14.3 percent of the population in 2010, the perspective being that this percentage would stay practically the same until 2030, to increase up to 19.7 percent in 2060.

At the moment, the residential housing in this region, providing equipment and services specially adapted to seniors are:

nursing homes, for mostly independent elderly citizens, offering occasional health care;

nursing and care homes, for dependent citizens, in need of intensive care services;

geriatric hospitals, exclusively destined for specific treatments for elderly patients;

erviced residences, for seniors who want to live independently but can have the use of various services and collective equipment;

day care centres, also providing assistance and home care.

The Region of Bruxelles-Capitale has 204 structures and services, providing residential services for seniors, 28% of them for French-speaking seniors, 5% for Dutch-speaking ones and 67% for the bi-lingual elderly. These statistics are based on the over 60 population, since 60 is the age of admission for these institutions. On average, the region counts one structure or service for residential housing per 1,000 senior citizens.

The localization of the housing facilities is evenly spread over the territory, the day care centres are mostly situated in the central part of the region{3}.

The local culture, Bruxelles-Capitale being a highly urbanized place, explains that families are more inclined to choose residential housing for their seniors, rather than welcoming them into their homes (apartments are too small, expensive, all family members work, etc.).

ICELAND - Reykjavík

Today, the population of Iceland is 329,100. It is a rather young nation as 67 years and older are about 33,000 or only 10% of the population. It is expected that the population of Iceland will increase about 33% by the year 2060 and will then be 430,000 people. In the year 2040 we expect that 67 years and older will have grown from about 10% of the total population up to 18%.

The project took place at the elderly centre Hrafnista, which is the largest elderly centre and nursing home in Iceland. About 600 residents live in Hrafnista nursing homes and Hrafnista has three day care and training centres. Hrafnista makes a priority of high-quality nursing and medical care, rehabilitation, physio- and occupational therapy and varied social activities. We chose the day training centre to have our workshops. Our clients in the day care centre have applied to our rehabilitation option in consultation with their doctor. The clients can come to the day training centre for about 4 weeks, where they get for example physiotherapy and occupational therapy. The clients can come during business hours which are usually between 9:00-15:00 weekdays. Many of our clients are socially isolated and have depression, Parkinson’s, dementia among other diseases and they all live in their homes.

In the day training centre we can reach out to the younger cliental of the elderly. Our focus was on empowerment and giving the elderly an opportunity to share their life story, using Transcultural Biography Work (TBW), Memoro interviews and Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP).

We adapted the TBW to our own biographical work which we call Life history. We were already working with Life history at the nursing home especially for people with dementia. Participants were asked questions like: “Why should I do this?” and “Who could benefit from it?”. The day training centre gives every client a handout about how they can start to make their own Life history, what questions are good to have and the possibilities. Most of our clients were positive and wanted to start at home with their families, others thought it was good to know but not interested at that time.

Our goal is that when people move into a nursing home they have themselves written their story which can be introduced to the staff members. The person can benefit from it especially if the elderly person has memory loss.

The Memoro interviews were realised by Oddur Albertsson and took place in our day training centre. Oddur introduced the project for all of our day training centre clients at the auditorium. About 15 people listened to his lecture and there was a group discussion about memories and the old times. Later Oddur and two high school students interviewed three of our clients and made a video recording of the session. The clients were hesitant at first because they were afraid of the internet and who could see the video. Questions like: “Will I look dumb?” or “I have nothing interesting to say!” asked.

All three clients wanted to see the interview before it was published. All of them were happy with the result.

The APP was introduced to all of our day training centre clients. We used an iPad with the APP application LIT and the clients could use it daily at resting time after lunch. There were about 4-5 people using it on a daily basis. Each one for 30 minutes about 2-4 times each week. The clients were positive and thought listening to music cleared their minds and helped with their concentration, it was uplifting and the 30 minutes was a pleasant resting time without falling asleep. After the testing time we continued using the APP app all through the summer.

ITALY - Palermo

From the early stage of the application, Speha Fresia involved as associate partner the Elderly Care Centre “Principe Ventimiglia e Conte Palagonia” (IPAB Principe di Palagonia) a little care home located in Palermo (Sicily region), that needed further training for its social workers and expressed its interest in piloting innovative practices also for improving the quality of life of the older guests. The Institute manages a nursing home for 32 clients, 13 of whom took part to INNOMEC pilot, and also an Elderly Daily Centre with 250 people enrolled, open to all the seniors of the neighbourhood. The Centre is based within the Institute and offers social and recreational activities. The elderly people are women/men of 65-100 years old (average age in the residential home is 90 years old, while in the Daily EC is around 70 years-old). It is a public institute of charity 70% funded by private funds (60% income from properties; 10% costs paid by clients); and 30% by public funds (regional funds for the staff costs and contribution paid by the Municipality of Palermo in support of the Elderly Community Centre). The staff involved in the nursing home is composed of 12 fixed staff: 3 nurses, 1 doctor, 1 health-care operator, 1 animator, 6 cleaning workers; But they can also count a Social Assistant trainee (internship from UMSA University); two volunteers, the chaplain, and a nun. The legal requirements in regard to the qualification of the main operators are: the Vocational Qualification for the Health-Social-Care operators; the bachelor in Nursing and the related licence for the nurses; the bachelor in social services for the Social Assistant. In Italy the health-care systems are regulated by Regional laws. According to the Sicily Region, for the establishment of ECCs it is necessary to be enrolled in a specific registry for obtaining the regional accreditation. Centres have to respect a series of common standards concerning the structure (Regional Law 22 of 1986 and DPR 29/06/1988 structural standards for the social care interventions foreseen by the Regional Law n°22/86) and concerning the staff (Decree of Republic Presidency of 4/6/1996 with the approval of the agreement template by the municipalities of the Region for the social-care services, as stated in the R.L. 22/86). Services offered by the organisation include elderly care assistance and social/cultural activities. As art.10 of the National Law n.328 of 2000 did not find yet application in the Region of Sicily, about the regulation of “IPAB” (Public Institution of care and charity), this institution still finds its funding law in the so called “Crispi Law” of 1890!

The age structure in Sicily in 2015 counts 19.9% {4} of the population over 65 years, while in Palermo and its province, it's a little bit lower (19.3%) confirming longevity in our country, but analysing the offer of care and cure services, consistently with the rest of Italy, elderly care is still almost completely in the hands of families and private care givers. Ageing and the transformation processes of families’ structure make these care efforts harder even with the support of private care givers. The increasing number of older people and “very old” people is increasing the demand of residential services, and the provision of these kinds of service is slowly growing, but with wide regional differences between North and South.

The offer is still poorly differentiated, and it is developed per typologies, without a networking system, yet to be developed. From research of the regional AUSER (national association for older people linked to the trade union CGIL), Sicily has the worst performance in the provision of residential care, with an index of 0.9 beds for elderly care per 1,000 older inhabitants versus a national average of 14.5 beds. And the care integrated services at older people’s home is 2.14 versus a national index of 4.12 of older people assisted at their homes per 1,000 of older inhabitants{5}.

ITALY - Vicenza

In Italy, health and care systems are managed by Regional authorities, so part of the features described below could be peculiar to the Veneto Region and not to be considered as a general national rule.

Veneto is an Italian region with about 4,921,140 inhabitants, located in the North-East of Italy. Historically, the natural yearly demographic increase rate has always been one of the highest in Italy, but in 1983 it was negative for the first time.

The negative trend is still ongoing, and it’s even growing year by year.

The population structure in terms of age can be represented as follows:

Table 1. Population structure per age from 2002 to 2015 (source: ISTAT)

It’s clear that there is an increasing process of aging ongoing, which is leading to having an increasing average age of Venetian inhabitants (from 41.7 years in 2002 to 44 in 2015 – source: ISTAT 2015). The number of over-65 people keeps growing: if in 2002 it was around 827,630 nowadays it counts 1,066,900 people. Active aging becomes a topic more and more realistic in the social and political agenda, since this demographic structure has a strong impact on welfare needs and costs.

Veneto regulates Elderly Care Centres (ECCs) management by requesting a series of common standards necessary to obtain the regional accreditation. When the Centre does not meet these standards, the Region denies the accreditation and the structure cannot be included in the public system.

One of these standards also includes the presence within the Centre of the so-called “educative department”, which is supposed to work in cooperation with other professionals in order to promote educative and learning activities.

This represents the big added value, discriminating ECCs from hospitals. [take part to our POLL N°3 on Innomec.eu]

Notwithstanding the existent separation between care and educative services, social operators remark how difficult it is sometimes to consider the two aspects as separated, when dealing with elderly people.

In fact, many times the caregiver has to spend “educational time” with hosts, especially if s/he makes the host do things (washing, dressing, eating, etc.) by her/him-self.

In any case, educative and learning activities are a specific point in Elderly Care Centres agenda. Professional trainers are crucial components of the multidisciplinary team assigned to each host, and once a host is welcome in the centre, an evaluation is done in order to identify aspirations, stories, competences and interests. This is done for better proposing activities and initiatives, fitting the guests’ profiles, and thus guaranteeing a customized service.

Starting from this general background, and considering that the Italian partner SCV was supposed to test APP and MEMORO methodologies, SCV got in touch with different organisations and stakeholders working in the field of elderly services and policies.

In particular, we identified 2 organisations managing elderly care centres, which were very interested in experimenting directly with their guests the innovative tools and approach proposed by INNOMEC.

Therefore, we scheduled with them and according to their availability which methods would have been experienced for each of them.

The 2 organisations are:

1. Cooperativa La Goccia (Marostica, Vicenza) [link to their website]

2. Fondazione OASI (S. Bonifacio, Verona) [link to their website]

They are located in two different provinces of the Veneto region, so the impact of the validation has been extended beyond Vicenza itself.

Both of them decided to validate the APP method, while only OASI decided to also test MEMORO.

LITHUANIA - Vilnius

Demographic convergences of the recent decades impact population age structures and result in the ageing of society in Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian Statistics Department (2013) 102 social care institutions were providing social care services in 2012, 4,500 older adults received these services. The majority of the above institutions function within the regulatory supervision of local municipalities; others are public enterprises or private institutions. Stationary care institutions for older adults are the following types: care houses for older people, geared for people who are in need of permanent nursing and care and for people who, because of their old age and deterioration, are unable to live on their own at home; independent residences, which are mainly for older people, who are in no need of permanent care and nursing, but may require minor assistance or some social services.

At present the measure and evaluation of the quality of social services for different groups of clients is only at the initial stage. In the attempt to achieve the quality aims of social services in Lithuania, the definition of the concept of social service quality is constructed as well as the criteria of its measuring. In other words, at present the social service quality concept is being discussed. It is very important for social workers who provide social services for elderly clients; the quality assessment is associated with the growth of the professional prestige in the society [take part to our POLL N°4 on Innomec.eu]. In the Catalogue of Social Services (of 05 April 2006 Order No. A1-93, (Žin., 2006, Nr. 31-1092) educational activities are not listed directly, however, in practice, implicitly they are carried out as sociocultural services, which are listed in the Catalogue as leisure activities provided to avoid social problems (prevention aims), to bridge social exclusion, engaging the whole community and which enable individuals (families) to communicate, to participate in group social work function, undertake favourite activities. The key providers of such services are social workers.

Quality evaluation of social services in social care institutions for elderly people was started in 2013. Criteria for social service quality evaluation is infrastructure (building) status correspondence to standards, qualification of the personnel, presence of standard documentation, correspondence to the norms of social service development. These criteria consist from objective, quantitative measures which allow for easy assessment of some aspects of the quality assurance. Licensing social service institutions started in Lithuania in 2013 and it embraces only objective criteria, which are listed in the Social Service Institution Licensing Regulations approved by the Government Decision No.528 of 16 May 2012 (Žin., 2012, Nr.: 57 - 2864). Institutions wishing to acquire a license fill out questionnaires consisting of objective measures: the correspondence to the legal requirements regarding the ratio of social service receivers per personnel, the structure of the institution, personnel education, size of residential and personal hygiene areas.

By 2015 all the care institutions that provide social services for elderly people will have to acquire licences or else close down. Licensing of enterprises, institutions or families to provide social care in the institutions or within the individual homes is carried out by the Department of Social Service Supervision (DSSS). It is estimated that there will be about 500 licensed services providing institutions of different competence.

In Lithuania, the National Pilot was realised engaging the 3rd year students of Social work programme who were introduced to the methods: TBW, Memoro and APP. Theoretic knowledge on methods were integrated into the following courses: “Fundamentals of Andragogy” and “Social gerontology”. During the internship period, students who did their practical training at elderly care institutions, were encouraged to apply these methods in practice. After completion of the internship, students were asked to reflect on their experiences and to discuss findings and improvements. Also seminars for practitioners who work in social service institutions in Vilnius city were organised: care and nursing homes, independent households, Senior citizens daily centres and services provided to the older people residential centres.

{3} Bureau Fédéral du plan, Inventaire des Equipements pour Seniors, Bruxelles-Capitale, Inventaire analytique, novembre 2010 - Le Carrefour de l’Economie Sociale, www.econosoc.be

{4} Source: ISTAT National Institute of Statistics at http://www.tuttitalia.it/sicilia/statistiche/indici-demografici-struttura-popolazione/

{5} Auser Sicilia, “Non è una regione per vecchi” (It is not a region for older people), 2011

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Introduction to the three practices

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the APP [link to the video]

Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP) is a pedagogical method aimed at enhancing our listening skills. Listening, from the point of view of the APP, could be defined as how we actively profit from our physiological hearing. Listening is therefore considered a skill that can be improved or optimised at any age. “To listen well” means to have the ability to concentrate on what we hear, moving from the passive stage of “hearing” a sound message, to the active stage of paying attention to it and, finally, to decode it properly.

The Audio-Psycho-Phonology method promotes therefore the development of the basic conditions to strengthen the self-learning process: the improvement of attention, concentration, memory and the development of group communication.

These are the reasons why this method is used for groups of seniors and even more for intergenerational groups.

During this experimentation, to engage the brain in the listening process, LIT was used, an iPad software that applies a continuous and unpredictable change to sounds in the equalisation curve. The APP calls this effect the “Gating Effect”. The Gating Effect, based on the principles of the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) works as a sound bait for the auditory cortex of our brain, that is gently forced to pay attention to the sounds it is hearing, keeping awake the crucial process of listening.

Once we get the attention of the brain the APP approach uses some psychoacoustic principles to improve specific skills or to alleviate specific issues. Therefore, the brain is trained on two different levels: first the gating effect captures its attention; then special filters, developed following psychoacoustics principles, influence its mood in order to improve memory, concentration, communication skills, stimulate imagination, reduce stress or anxiety, improve body awareness and coordination. To obtain this result, the LIT software proposes 3 types of sound tracks: “Basic”, “Motor (or Focus)” and “Recharge”.

The hair cells in the cochlea, stimulated by the APP method, transform the sensorial information sent by the filtering engine of the software, into an electric current, which “feeds” the brain. At the same time the training also stimulates the vestibular system which is the core of equilibrium and body coordination. Thinking, concentrating, memorising, creating, communicating and moving: all these activities demand a great deal of energy which is likely to be lacking in old age.

Aging brings a reduction of sensory functions and elderly people often experience a loss of vitality and energy, especially when they live in a retirement home. This loss of perception is both cause and effect of many issues: less physical movement, less communication, fewer intellectual demands and less motivation. Like in a vicious circle, receiving less stimulation from the senses makes us less curious to explore the world around us which reduces even further our chances to find new stimulation to compensate for that which we have lost. So the challenge of the APP approach, for the elderly, is to break this circle and open them once more to the world.

Finally, and this concerns many elderly people, hearing problems can be lessened thanks to the listening sessions. Even though the hearing loss itself cannot be restored, exercising the muscles of the middle ear, through the APP training, helps the subjects to put to better use what is left of their hearing function. The benefits achieved can vary, from subject to subject, in a vast range of situations, from feeling less discomfort in noisy environments, to improvements in body balance and coordination (thanks to the vestibular activation).

The sessions have a direct impact on the emotional pathways and thereby on the level of communication. They allow a decrease of anxiety while the ability to relax and the desire to communicate are improved. Self-confidence and creativity are increased.

We could conclude that the APP Approach prevents elderly people from feeling isolated and encourages them to keep busy and active, because “for the brain, there is no vacation or retirement!”

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the Transcultural Biography Work (TBW) [link to TBW manuals]

Biography Work aims at developing a beneficial self-concept and broadening the horizon of possible choices in the present and future. It encourages beneficial behaviour and decision-making processes and empowers vision. It invites people to narrate their life stories using the strong power of memory and to open up biographical potentials for shaping one’s life in the present and future.

All kind of creative methods can be used to evoke memory. Biography Work as an adult’s educative approach is mainly oriented on one’s resources and potentials. But it also may help to overcome hindering patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. Through Biography Work people explore how they handled difficult situations in their life: How did I manage similar situations in the past? How did other people or other members of my family with whom I shared the memory manage it? It supports – especially as to marginalized people lacking space, time and means of self-determination – in gaining self-awareness as well as courage and the desire to realize one’s potential.

TBW supports the enhancement of self-esteem and the awareness of one’s competences. While working biographically especially in a group people should experience optimism and vitality. A positive personal condition motivates to make decisions to learn and to create visions for ones future. Therefore it prepares the ground for education and working carriers. TBW works on basic key competences to enable satisfying study and working life balance. With their participation people gain a sense for their meaningful contribution in society. Biography Work is a relatively slow process. It needs time and space to make unexpected learning processes and transformation possible. Transcultural Biography Work is oriented towards a realization process. Goals are set but unexpected results are around the corner and mostly appreciated if not highly valued. Biographical approach has already been used in and described for many professional fields – like care and elderly care, social work, support of foster and adopted children, adult education, therapy, counselling and coaching. Through Biography Work people experience how instructive and educative it is to talk to each other biographically, to listen to biographies, to compare and to learn from each other, to inspire each other. Biographical narration shows how people have become what they are now, why they express certain opinions, how they put their views and ideas forward, and why they react in a certain way under different circumstances. The mutual understanding grows. This concrete practice amplifies the horizon of people, their reservoir of imaginations to perceive unknown (and also familiar) people in general.

How to combine Biography Work with transculturality?

Culture is a multi-layered term – broadly discussed for example in cultural anthropology or cultural studies. In our case we define culture very simply as the way how people create, organize, express, but also think, verbalize and reflect their living on earth; how they create a common understanding they can share.

“Transcultural” – following the arguments of philosopher Wolfgang Welsch (http://www2.uni-jena.de/welsch/) – is based on the idea that cultures always change, mix, and influence each other. They are no fixed entities but there are nettings. Every human community or network defined as “a culture” went through a long historic and ongoing transformation process. Culture is not a thing but something people learn, do, transform, experience and share. So the English term “doing culture” is quite adequate. People create themselves culturally. To be socialised in an environment, in a period means to be familiarized with what people around you think, feel, do; to select how to think, act, feel; to be forced into thoughts, emotions, actions. So this is “doing culture” as well as we “do gender” – being forced to decide about oneself at the same time. As soon as people with different (“cultural”) background meet they influence each other and something will change. Rejecting each other because of “cultural features” or defining each other as members of certain “cultures” means to construct those cultures mentally, emotionally and even materially.

The transcultural focus of Biography Work

Orienting Biography Work transculturally focuses on:

Exploring what feels foreign in me – to understand better what I experience as foreign outside myself.

Identifying and appreciating personal talents and capabilities learned through living in different cultural contexts/nets. Transcultural contexts may overwhelm with contradictory demands. Transcultural life practice challenges individuals to develop a stable psychic and mental base of decision making – to find out selection criteria and dynamic modes to interpret perceptions and experiences, to find ways to balance varieties, differences and contradictions.

Finding out how migration experience influenced my life or the life of people I work with: Identifying what is needed to handle practical life in an unfamiliar environment and what is needed for the personal integration of contradictory experience and demands.

Stimulating and cultivating processes of mutual understanding among people who regard themselves as members of different cultures (and generations); creating a “common third” – “doing culture” through transcultural communication.

Transcultural biographical self-exploration leads to a qualitative exchange which has the potential to change mind sets. An important stimulus for such change is the recognition that human beings – regardless of their cultural background, gender and age – are similar in terms of basic needs and emotional patterns and reactions. A transcultural mind set and related practice does not eradicate differences but extends possibilities of mutual understanding. Approaching other people as “basically similar” creates a different perception and reflection on one selves’ and others’ behaviour, a different way of decision making and comportment than approaching other people as “basically foreign”. TBW aims at activating communication, mutual understanding and learning processes; at stimulating comprehensive communication among participants of different origin in communication processes. TBW helps us to express ourselves, rediscover and share our memories, engage in dialogue with each other and understand our dependencies and differences on the basis of mutual respect and understanding. TBW encourages participants to regard people’s unique experience, to start from their horizon of experience and understanding. It helps to overcome misunderstanding and stereotypical perceptions among people. With TBW, communication processes are initiated to gain mutual empathic understanding of experience and motivations. Transcultural communication can be practiced and trained on this basis of a communicative style which supposes and therefore is aware of connection, relation, empathy, similarity, and difference in degree of human beings rather than separation and unbridgeable difference in kind.

Transcultural biographical self-awareness raises individual self-esteem, but at the same time it strengthens the consciousness of human interdependence, of the ongoing mutual influence. It makes one aware that the liberty to shape the interdependency grows with its acknowledgement. Living means learning by facing new situations, people, culture-nets, or ages. And learning means transforming oneself.

Theoretical introduction to the practice of the Digital Interviews MEMORO [link to Memoro]

The definition oral history was first used, in the sense that we still assign to it, by the American Winslow C. Watson on 20th October 1863 in Montpellier: the term (more precisely “use of oral sources”) refers to adding to traditional sources, generally used by historians for research, oral testimonies of protagonists or participants in past events under examination.

This specific feature represents the difference between oral history and oral tradition. Oral tradition refers to the system of oral transmission, replication and reprocessing of cultural heritage in a group of people, without the use of writing; oral sources are individual informal stories: in other words actual “inquiry processes” searching through the memories of participants in past events.

The basic tool of oral history is represented by the interview, a dialogue between two or more people, and characterised by an interviewer asking questions to the interviewee with a goal of collecting information. It is clear that this kind of conversation envisages a direct relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee, a relationship that plays a crucial role in the success of the interview.

The interview may enable the collection of essential information, if the interview is realized applying the appropriate instructions. Existing techniques are too complex to be reduced in simple statements, and are strongly linked to the attention, empathy and experience of the researcher.

In general, you should remember that above all the interview represents a relationship between people rather than a relationship between individuals, objects and documents.

A useful tip to facilitate this kind of relationship is to spend some time before the recording with the person to interview, in a certain sense to become familiar with the person, also with a goal of understanding what kinds of questions to ask afterwards and to identify potential “negotiations” to make. These considerations do not refer only to the difference between subjects that may generally be easily explored and embarrassing issues that may annoy the interviewee. As a matter of fact, in relation to the kind of information that we wish to collect, the direct question may be useless. For instance: undoubtedly tales and proverbs are part of formal literary folklore, nevertheless if we ask our subjects a few tales the stories will be easily shared with us (obviously if they know these stories); differently, if we ask our testimonies to tell us proverbs they probably won’t answer our question, even if they know some proverbs. Proverbs are used by the population when needed, as part of the everyday ordinary language and, as a consequence, it is quite difficult to “extract” these elements from the context of everyday life and make them become the subject of a specific knowledge.

The interview, as suggested by the word, tries to view; usually through questions. This element represents both the charming and the frustrating aspect of the research: the awareness that everything, potentially, could be simply obtained through the right questions and that, at the same time, the question is related to several practical and methodological problems. Also the question itself is characterised and influenced by the nature of the relationship and it is clear that each question influences, in a certain sense, also the answer.

The interview represents the crucial moment characterised by the conflict of two worlds, each one is observing and is observed at the same time; that “quid” that will arise through our work is only achieved through the dialectic encounter of two personalities, the observer and the observed, and through the intellectual creation deriving from it; and if some types of data collection – for instance statistical, quantitative – the observer may “disappear” acting as a zoom lens, an indifferent recorder, during face-to-face interviews it is, first of all, necessary to ask questions; already in the definition of the question the interviewer undoubtedly expresses himself/herself, the involvement is already deep. The interviewer should free him/herself from ancestral, limiting (even if invisible) burdens. As long as the researcher moves forward his/her inquiry, even if strictly “objective” in his/her intention, while remaining basically stranger to the field of observation, he/she doesn’t reduce his/her prejudices: the emotional sympathy may be enough if he/she doesn’t succeed in being deeply involved in the essence of the research.

Therefore the communication should be based on the mutual willingness to listen to each other: the interviewer should be open to receiving the memories that the subject is willing to share, respecting him or her, while at the same time the witness should be willing to tell thus enabling the developing of a bridge between them, a bridge enabling an effective transmission of knowledge. Therefore in certain cases, when communication is easily established, it is possible to collect intimate and personal memories, often hidden or inaccessible to the wider audience. This often is the case of histories told by women, often “invisible” to official history, but deeply interesting thanks to their ability to describe a whole world which was there and, somehow, supported the “official” world.

The most important element is constituted by the richness and liveliness in details that may arise from an oral testimony. It’s a colour vision: a variety of different types of individuals, of characteristics, of episodes that help to understand better how rich in conflicts and also in passionate personal tragedies was the history lived by mankind.

The interview offers the possibility to widen the number of subjective, memory-based and documentary historical sources – in comparison to historiographical customs. In this sense it is possible to highlight a sort of “democratisation” of this kind source, characterised by the increasing value in terms of historiography of elements that previously couldn’t access this category. The historiographical practice used to generally refer to “practitioners”, and to their attitudes and approaches well-established in traditions.

This aspect is particularly relevant in relation to some historiographical fields and themes. As a matter of fact oral sources may be exploited for a variety of topics, such as the history of individuals, of families, of work, of political movements, of local communities, but also of specific events/episodes (wars, economic crisis, environmental disasters). Therefore these sources are not limited to a specific theme but they confirm their nature of actual historical source.

History is made up of both documents and testimonies. The oral source represents an important and complex tool of historical analysis, and it is able to enrich the official history through contents and meanings, thus providing a wider and more detailed perspective of what actually happened. The interview, both the written text, the tape, the hard-disk or any other technical device recording and preserving memories actually represent historical documents, testimonies that, if available, may be used by historians.

These kinds of documents or testimonies are characterised by the same textual or philological problems concerning any other type of document or historical testimony. The general principle, the basis of the historical work – as of any other scientific work – is that all documents, testimonies etc. should be accepted evaluating their authenticity and reliability.

Memoro Video interview

Banca della Memoria Onlus cultural association was established in June 2009, and it developed and followed-up the international Memoro – the Bank of Memories project, a website devoted to the collection, classification and sharing of the memories, experiences and life stories of people born before 1950. The collection of memories is realised through video and audio recordings of interviews. During the interview the person is free to tell about one or more events that he/she considers interesting, to be preserved and passed on to the younger generations. The video and audio recordings are the chosen tools: the video represents a direct tool, that preserves the original message. Voices, faces and expressions represent an essential element of a person and of his or her tales. Audio recordings date back in time, to tales of people who are no longer with us: recorded voices, significant and precious memories. Moreover audio recordings simplify the collection of memories for those who do not own a video camera, for instance recording by phone.

Internet, the tool chosen to share the memories, enables much flexibility and accessibility of the content. Moreover internet enables everyone with a computer to contribute to our growing archive and to organize content effectively through thematic pathways enabling others to easily access and browse it. Moreover Internet represents the media of young people: the fundamental beneficiaries of memories and the future keepers of past experiences.

Memoro – the Bank of Memories aims at representing the electronic version of stories that traditionally grandfathers told to their nephews. And more than that: Memoro – the Bank of Memories also represents a community jointly developing contents, following updates through newsletters and on social media, comments and votes videos, organizes training activities and projects in partnership with associations and public Regional and Local Authorities.

Among the project goals it is important to highlight the aim of promoting in the wider audience the desire to take part in the collection of memories, thus providing the individuals interviewed with the precious opportunity to be the actual focus and protagonists of history. To this purpose the Memoro project developed the role of “memory hunter” (anyone who uploads a video) and “witness” (anyone sharing his memories through an interview). Anyone uploading a video becomes a memory hunter and is provided with his own personalised webpage featuring his repertory of collected memories. Such profiles may be easily enriched through the creation of specific thematic pathways as well as through news and oddities.

A specific webpage for witnesses features their videos, photos, personal data and a short biography: this section was conceived to provide the witnesses taking part in the project as “interviewees” a personal space on the Memoro website.

Memory represents a universal value. For this reason, since the beginning, the project was conceived in an international dimension. When an individual, a group of people or an association expresses the interest to develop the Memoro project in another Country, Memoro the Bank of Memories starts a cooperation process that results in the establishment of a new Memoro branch. Through the years the cooperation enabled the creation of new Memoro branches that enriched the Memoro web portal. Today the Memoro web portal features several different national websites, easily accessible through the international home page.

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Application of practices

AUDIO-PSYCHO-PHONOLOGY (APP)

Cases and experiences

The APP practice was studied during the EU common training (Brussels, June 2014) among the partners’ staff (applicants and associates) and through some further seminars and workshops realised by the expert Dr Diego Taccuso in some of the partners’ countries (Lithuania, April 2015; Italy, in May 2015 in Vicenza and in October 2015 in Rome [link to the slides prepared by Diego Taccuso]).

The APP standard protocol was adapted for this experimentation as follows:

The caregivers were told to use LIT only with these three default settings: Motor, to stimulate the body awareness and movement; Recharge to stimulate imagination and reduce stress and anxiety; Focus to improve concentration, memory and linguistic skills.

The caregivers were instructed to use music (Mozart or Folks songs) or sounds of nature (birds chirping, rain, ocean waves) filtered by one of the above three default settings. The music had to be listened to for 30 minutes a day for 15 days.

It is important to notice that an APP training period generally lasts 28 hours, while in this experimentation the overall time was reduced to only 7 hours and a half; of course this must be taken into consideration during the final evaluation.

The main experiences with final beneficiaries, older and young people, were realised in:

Vicenza (Italy), where StudioCentro Veneto involved three different learning environments for this pilot: Oasi Foundation (at San Bonifacio nursing home with 6 not-self-sufficient guests); Cooperative La Goccia (at the elderly daily centre in Nove where leisure and rehabilitation activities are realised for partially self-sufficient persons affected by dementia, Alzheimer, Parkinson etc. and among them 14 took part to the pathway); Association ASTER TRE, a youth association.

Brussels (Belgium), at the Maison des Femmes de Schaerbeek an open institution where all generations are welcome for various emancipating activities (art, exhibitions, workshops etc.), and where Euro Idea tested the APP, integrating the other two practices (TBW and Memoro), and combining two groups of learners: older people and young migrant women.

The procedure consisted of:

Listening with head-phones to music by Mozart filtered and non-filtered between 1000 and 3000hz (which corresponds to the soundtrack of language).

A progressive length of listening time.

Verbalisation (voluntary) by the participants of the sensations they felt during the listening e.g. relaxation, rest, tiredness, wellbeing.

Verbalisation of the memories that came to the mind during the listening.

After this individual work, performed by each participant, we bounced to group communication.

During the listening phase, the users could draw.

Reykjavík (Iceland), at Hrafnista the APP was introduced to all of our day training centre clients. We used an iPad with the APP application LIT and the clients could use it daily at resting time after lunch. There were about 4-5 people using it on a daily basis. Each one for 30 minutes about 2-4 times each week. The clients were positive and thought listening to the music cleared their minds and helped with their concentration, it was uplifting and the 30 minutes was a pleasant resting time without falling asleep. After the testing time we continued using the APP app all through the summer.

Lithuania - Vilnius, at Mykolas Romeris University 11 social workers employed in social service institutions in Vilnius city were given an 8-hour seminar on 23 April, 2015. The other group of the trainees was a group of Social Work Bachelor Degree Programme third year students who completed practice at the elderly social care institutions. Participants experienced satisfaction and stimulation after living through direct method application and also gained knowledge in theory on the perspectives of the application of the method for the elderly clients.

Weak Points

The application of the method requires trained caregivers.

The results are conditioned by the quality of the equipment used: headphones and speakers. They have to be of good quality and in good condition, and must be kept in that way.

In case of the use of speakers their positioning in the activity room is also very important. This means that the setting up of the proper environment requires a certain amount of evaluation and planning.

The method only delivers the best results if applied on a regular basis.

At the beginning guests can be skeptical about taking part in the activity, since they were not able to understand the sense. The need to deepen all the information and to introduce the connected activities (e.g. manual activities provide a clearer sense to their participation), is necessary.

From the socialisation point of view, some guests didn’t show any special change; they were not very expansive, as before.

The experimentation showed that it is advisable to diversify the musical input, replacing e.g. classical music by sounds of nature.

Strong Points

The intergenerational aspect had a most positive effect on the listening process and the oral communicative skills.

The training led to an increased perception and discrimination of sounds and to a solicitation of certain cognitive functions, such as memory, concentration and attention.

The training had a positive effect on the communication skills: an augmented verbal interaction occurred among the majority of the guests, especially during the drawing and colouring activities.

The application of the “Focus” track sounds had a positive effect on the communication skills.

The training had a positive effect on the motor skills of all the guests; the physiotherapy sessions done while listening to the Motor track sound, could be prolonged up to one hour, instead of the usual 25-30 minutes. Even guests suffering from Parkinson disease showed some sensible body coordination improvements.

All the guests showed enthusiasm, serenity and a positive mood during the training. They talked about the activity both to operators and to their relatives, giving a very positive feedback.

The improvement of the hearing capacities brought certain guests to wish for an improvement in their visual capacities.

Manual activities improved during the listening sessions, the abilities acquired during the age-long learning process were favourable to this evolution.

The operators are very pleased with an application such as the APP (LIT software), which is both affordable and user friendly and brings about an important mental and physical improvement for the elders and their care givers.

On the whole of the experiences within the centres, the reactions of the hosts were very positive. The application had a relaxing and soothing effect.

Notes on relevant events occurred during the listening sessions:

A guest, from the 4th day on, didn’t require the sedation therapy that was given to him before on a daily basis.

A guest with depression symptoms, showed a particular enthusiasm about the sessions. During the period of the activity her husband was admitted to the same centre, and general concern emerged that this might destabilise her. On the contrary she accepted the new situation with serenity and a positive attitude.

Figure 2 The video-tutorial for APP method

TRANSCULTURAL BIOGRAPHY WORK (TBW)

Cases and experiences

The TBW practice was studied during the EU common training (Brussels, June 2014 [link to the related documents & reports]) among the partners’ staff (applicants and associates) and deepened through the following pilots:

Austria – Graz. A team of 2 trainers, Andrea Gaal and Elisabeth Schrattner, worked together in workshops with residents of day care centres and other social facilities to find out about topics of large interest for the elderly. They used creative methods to engage elderly people. An important role played the method of transcultural biographical work (TBW). It was used in common talks to exchange memories, record them, and make them available in the form of interviews. Altogether 61 individual elderly people took part in 5 pilot group activities (12 modules) and individual activities at home. 37 of them participated twice.

Belgium – Brussels, at the Maison des Femmes de Schaerbeeck an open institution where all generations are welcome for various emancipating activities (art, exhibitions, workshops etc.), and where Euro Idea tested the TBW, integrating the other two practices (APP and Memoro), and combining two groups of learners: older people and young migrant women. Euro Idea introduced the TBW method, by using in turns geographical maps, post cards, photos, objects that are linked to memories and first and foremost, the illustrations the participants made during the listening phase (APP).

Iceland – Reykjavik, at Hrafnista we adapted the TBW to our own biographical work which we call Life history. We were already working with Life history at the nursing home, especially for people with dementia. First we introduced the Life history to our clients in our auditorium. Guðmunda, a staff member of the day training centre, introduced it and there where about 25 people who participated. The day training centre gives every client a handout about how they can start to make their own Life history, what questions are good to have and what are the possibilities. Most of our clients were positive and wanted to start at home with their families but others thought it was good to know, but were not interested at that time. Our goal is that when people move into a nursing home they have themselves written their story which can be introduced to the staff members. The person can benefit from it especially if the elderly person has memory loss.

Italy - Palermo (Sicily): the TBW was mainly exploited by the educator and the social workers of the elderly nursing home for preparing the ground of sharing guests’ memories through the digital interviews of Memoro. 13 guests took part to the biographical pathway and the “remembering exercises” were related to everyday life topics: the religious celebrations, the traditional food linked to specific days, the life in the old Palermo, the working life (helped by the use of postcards, and drawing works for the preparation of the festivity of Saint Joseph).

Lithuania – Vilnius, in September 2014 and February 2015 3° year students (26 in Lithuanian group and 13 in foreign students group) of Social work studying at Mykolas Romeris University were introduced to Transcultural Biography Work approach (aim, content, and procedures). Seminars progressed smoothly; the participants shared their experiences and feelings, actively participated in all activities. All group of participants stressed that TBW supports the enhancement of self-esteem and the awareness of one’s competences. While working biographically, especially in a group, learners and practitioners should experience optimism and vitality. A positive personal condition motivates to make decisions to learn and to create visions for ones future.

Weak Points

Participants can be distracted by new rooms or people. Self-consciousness does easily appear within familiar surroundings, where they can concentrate on what is asked for: focus on their stories, focus on inter-personal relationships.

The contact persons within the respective organisations need to be very well informed. Elderly people very often have a high trust in their caretakers. It may be difficult for new trainers offering new things to be met with openness from participants if the confidence basis has not been established via the local practitioners.

The main concern regarding the use of TBW methods and techniques is the provocation or recollection of unpleasant or sometimes traumatic memories experiences and fears. In such cases, it could be difficult to control and manage the situation.

The TBW approach involves several techniques requiring the sharing of autobiographic life experiences and very personal data. This necessitates that the information shared be kept within and shared only among the group.

Personal exchange of information in TBW seminars requires that trainers take the needed time to explain the logic of TBW approach, get people feel comfortable with each other and let them explore the TBW techniques.

Strong Points

The evocative capacities stimulate the communicative ones. The exchanges between the participants become richer and more complex and the users switch easily from the factual communication to a more personal and empathic one.

This results in a revitalization of the socialization based on recognition and acceptance of each individuality.

This highly improves the self-esteem of the participants.

The younger participants showed a keen interest in the TWB method, thus sharing and appreciating the experiences of the elderly participants.

In the context of multicultural learning, the transcultural dimension of the biographic account awakens interest and stimulates the intellectual curiosity of the group.

Interviews partly lead to a reflection of one´s own coping strategies with illnesses.

“Thank you very much, you´re welcome to come back!” The participants were happy to be visited by the practitioners within their own environment and be able to present themselves as hosts.

The participants can think back to significant moments of their existence in application of TBW, in order to identify situations in which they learned, built, or elaborated new knowledge or abilities.

TBW helps to create a sense of being part and of living together in the new larger social life.

Practitioners and students accept this method as useful in their own job and studies.

Social workers and students gained knowledge and gained positive experience with the application of the method.

The tools proposed were really interesting for operators and experts working with elderly persons, so it was also easy to involve them in the different phases of the validation process.

Clients, mainly the guests of the daily centres, can involve their family members and perhaps make a memory book of their life.

DIGITAL INTERVIEWS (MEMORO)

Cases and experiences

The Memoro practice was studied during the EU common training (Brussels, June 2014 [link to the related documents & reports]) among the partners’ staff (applicants and associates) and deepened through the following pilots:

Austria - Graz: Altogether 61 individual elderly people took part in 5 pilot group activities (12 modules) and individual activities at home. 37 of them participated twice, 29 of them consented to individual interviews being captured either on video or sound file. The youngest participant was born in 1949, the oldest in 1919. Results can be seen also on the Austrian site of Memoro at: http://www.memoro.org/at-at/

Belgium - Brussels, to provide material for the memory bank, Euro-Idea interviewed the artist, Mrs. Francine Somers and made 3 videos of these contacts. Mrs. Somers was eager to share her life-experience and memories, she insisted that it is very important for her to pass this on to the next generations.

Iceland - Reykjavík, at Hrafnista the Memoro interviews were planned by Oddur Albertsson and took place in our day training centre. Oddur introduced the project for all of our day training centre clients at the auditorium. About 15 people listen to his lecture and there where a group discussion about memories and the old times. Later Oddur and two high school students interviewed three of our clients and made a video recording of the session.

Italy - Palermo (Sicily) after a workshop with 10 young volunteers we realised the video-interviews without their support, as with the nursing home social workers the residents were more confident to share memories and stories [link to the INNOMEC page on Memoro/Sicily interviews]. A targeted observation tool was implemented and applied to monitor the progress of the older guests involved in the testing. Their stories were related to everyday life topics: giving birth at home, the period of Word War II, or the experience of leaving the family home for a love story (in Sicilian dialect “fuitina”, the “little escape”).

Italy - Vicenza (Veneto), StudioCentro engaged in this testing Foundation OASI and the ASTER TRE Association, realising a preliminary workshop with the Memoro expert with about 30 participants. Fondazione OASI has been able to involve 3 different elderly centres: Soave, San Bonifacio, Gazzo Veronese in the experimentation of MEMORO methodology. Recording sessions about the years spent at school, the first years of work, weddings, etc. are still ongoing in Fondazione OASI structures; but thanks to the involvement of Consulta Anziani of Vicenza Municipality and IPAB Vicenza, a further elderly centre has been involved – “Isituto Salvi” - where 3 video-interviews were realised and uploaded on Memoro website. These interviews were basically dealing with the role of football in elderly people’s life [link to the INNOMEC page on Memoro/Veneto interviews].

Lithuania - Vilnius the 3rd year students of Social work studying at Mykolas Romeris University were introduced Memoro approach (aim, content, and procedures). After small experiments of interviewing each other students discussed difficulties of doing digital interview. Students received an assignment to make one digital interview with an older person residing in elderly care home or in a private dwelling unit. Special attention was paid to ensure the quality of the pilot study: quality assurance methods were employed such as reflections of older persons (provided to interviewers), oral feed-back of interviewers in classroom after doing interview; survey questionnaire for interviewers, discussion in multidisciplinary focus group, self-study of MEMORO approach by trainers, learning with the instructor, making a pilot interview, analysis of success and difficulties experienced by trainers, multidisciplinary peer-review by trainers.

Weak Points

Young volunteers, almost often university students, gave priority to their studies instead of a constant relationship with the older guests of the nursing home.

People who still live alone at home are more critical about video-taking or the internet than people who already experience some kind of care.

Good functioning technical equipment plays an important role which is especially valid for speakers. Sound problems we had during the first interviews could afterwards only be solved using software.

To record an individual interview while the other participants are present needs information for the non-participants by attaching for example a note at the door saying “Please, do not disturb. Filming in progress.” The local staff shall be asked not to serve drinks or meals during filming. And all present participants have to be able to understand that they cannot talk to each other while filming is going on.

Stakeholders could decide to quit the idea to test Memoro because of the privacy problems that could rise, especially from relatives of elderly people, due to the video recording process.

To some extent for some students it was a problem to find older people who would agree to participate in the digital interview.

For some students it was challenging to cope with technicalities - video making software, because it was their very first experience.

Since it was the very first experience for all students, the quality of some digital interviews could be better (sometimes there were side sounds, sometimes interviewers’ ice-breaking skills, skills of giving correct questions for qualitative interview, and listening skills could be improved).

Suggestions for future would be as follows: to devote more specialised time to preparation for technical and socio-psychological skills of conducting and recording an interview; to teach and train students be empathic to the wish of older person to (not) participate in interview.

To draw attention to the importance of good-quality-sound of interview.

The contact people within the respective organisations need to be very well informed. Elderly people very often have a high trust in their caretakers. It may be difficult for new trainers offering new things to be met with openness from participants if the confidence basis had not been established via the local practitioners.

People are afraid of the camera and are self-conscious. They do not want to look “stupid” and do not understand the internet. They are afraid of how the material will be used.

Strong Points

Interviews lead by example to a common plan of measures related to actual problems and wishes. Those measures helped to improve the quality of life and wellbeing.

Often told: “Yes, surely, my children know this already!” / Seldom told: “Who really wants to hear that”, “I don´t want to burden someone with that!”, “No one talked about that!” / Never told: “I have to tell you something that I haven´t told anyone before. (But not in front of the camera, please!)” – The participants appreciated telling things they wouldn´t tell otherwise.

The recording of videos got positive feedback throughout. Practitioners reported that especially relatives were happy with the recorded memories of their loved ones.

Contacts established during the project life and the MEMORO-site offer interesting possibilities for further cooperation in other projects.

When put in front of a video camera, elderly people can really surprise you, becoming really eager to tell you their stories.

Although some technical problems existed, all students who started their digital interviews succeeded in finishing them.

The tools proposed were really interesting for operators and experts working with elderly persons, so it was also easy to involve them in the different phases of the validation process.

Feedback were all positive after the experience. They could tell about many interesting things from their childhood and their life. They found it a positive experience and were proud of the outcome.

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Conclusions and further steps

With the hope to speed up the readers’ feedback and curiosity in applying these practices, and to interact with INNOMEC partners and experts about the further applications, we would like to share our final evaluations and some ideas on how to further valorise these techniques in other educational environments.

The main achieved results for the final beneficiaries can be summarised as follow:

The improvement of the verbal capacities contributed getting the seniors participants out of their isolation, boosted their self-confidence and brought about a feeling of mutual respect in the groups.

The intergenerational aspect has been of a capital importance for the two types of participants, the interaction resulted in an enrichment by the acquisition of new knowledge for the younger participants and a valorisation of the life experiences of the seniors, opening them to a broadened sociability.

Win-win interactions between young and old people, between local communities and incomers have strong impacts for social cohesion (One student sad: “it was a useful win-win experience for both - older and younger generation”).

In a relaxed atmosphere it is easier to talk about experiences especially if they were or are burdening. This is also true for long-time forgotten experiences.

Often, elderly people don`t know each other well, although some of them meet daily. Guided round tables are very helpful to get in contact with each other and to improve verbal communication.

Sharing memories can be an empowering experience like in “life history” and MEMORO. When the clients share their stories with others they really light up after the experience and are proud of themselves.

From the point of view of the external expert, the speech therapist Antonella Dessì, the effectiveness of the three methods are:

For the APP: Activating areas of the brain, the right hemisphere, plasticity - The APP method is very effective in the activation of the attention centres, it encourages and allows an improvement of cognitive and expressive functions - Hearing is a function of the ear (passive reception), listening is a cognitive function. The listening method proposed by APP awakens a psychological dimension that involves the ability to analyse and emotionally manage information. The therapeutic effects: reduces anxiety, gives energy, improves the listening skills, develops attention and memory, desire to communicate, creativity (right hemisphere).

For the TBW: Enhancement of the person - Encouragement to find personal learning solutions - Reconstruction of the personal identity story - Calming anxiety that often involves the patient and family - To promote a general sense of well-being - stimulating the memory and attention - Stimulate the participation of older person and caregivers - Relieve burden of care – Direct involvement of the person, activation of the attention system that is the basis of memory - Stimulus for the family participation - Effectiveness in group work - Benefit on psycho-affective sphere.

For MEMORO digital interviews the basic elements are: keeping the same fundamental elements of the biographical approach, greater involvement of young people and social workers implementing intergenerational exchange and bond with the community, stimulus for operators to propose new initiatives including computer aids in which young and old could share new experiences.

The main achieved results for our direct target groups, practitioners and students, can be summarised as follow:

The practitioners and the trainers were motivated to give a new impetus to their professional activity by the discovery of new methods and technologies, completing the competences they already acquired.

The trainers were able to note the effectiveness of the combination of the 3 methods (APP, TWB and Memoro) and of its results, allowing the old guests to get into closer contact with the social and technological evolutions and thus be more integrated into the changing society around them.

Practitioners were happy about activities offered. Because of lack of resources they often have to restrict themselves to just offering nursing services.

Practitioners in Austria showed their willingness to create their own profile in the MEMORO database to implement activities on their own, and the two trainers engaged in the testing will further on use the service which had been developed during INNOMEC for their future professional career.

Students in Lithuania reported:

they enjoyed listening to older people and editing digital interviews (evaluated this as an authentic and innovative learning method).

they acknowledged that making digital interview helped them to respect and value the older person as a unique personality.

they persuaded that their skills of communication, listening and talking are of great importance in making contacts with older persons / performing gerontological social work.

they would be happy to continue working with life stories of older persons in the future.

Social workers engaged for the first time in this kind of mutual learning recognized updated professional skills; improved team work; acquisition of new methods; improved relationships with the home guests.

Audio-Psycho-Phonology is also possible as an individual therapy, if the specific needs of the people involved are not favourable to group work. If seniors afflicted by Alzheimer or dementia in a more or less severe degree are concerned, the individual approach is necessary. Although, in the course of our pilots, this approach was not relevant.

Curiosity in trying new activities leads people closer together, it is important to do in daily life, both for the clients and the staff. Step out of your comfort zone, no matter what your age is!

The main achieved results within the local communities can be summarised as follow:

By the dissemination throughout the territory and the creation of new contacts with the institutions and the political decision makers, the lifelong learning programme was highlighted.

The importance of the multicultural and intergenerational aspect, forging a solidarity between seniors and new incomers, opened perspectives in regard to the actual data that the decision makers have to face.

The sensitiveness of local authorities, the closest institutional level committed in welfare and social inclusion in order to meet citizens’ social needs, gave a substantial support in the different countries. Although we have to report, fortunately an isolated case, one manager of one ECC who declared his doubts about the need of educators in ECCs!

The recommendations for promoting innovation through age-friendly educational proposals:

The continuous dissemination in the institutions, closed or open and the intensification of the contacts with the political powers is of foremost importance to ensure an extensive application of the lifelong and lifespan learning, on the local as well as on the European level.

Facing a population where seniors and new incomers are increasing in numbers, an interaction of this kind is a promising model of intergenerational and cultural integration.

It is necessary to talk about plans and concepts in time. Talks shall be held at best before the beginning of the activities and together with the local caretakers and practitioners. This is also valid for the used materials. It will ease the cooperation.

It is very important for practitioners and trainers to stay flexible concerning plans and methods to react to circumstances given by the local situation, the size of the group and individual needs of the participants. This means that strict plans or special expectations as well as pre-conceived text phrases in regard to the timeline or topic may be a big handicap.

Empathy on the other side helps the people to relax and open themselves. For example, the light nervousness at the beginning of the interview will disappear when the interviewed partners find out that they are respected and that their biographies are listened to with interest without issuing value, devaluing or even condemnation.

It is highly recommended to know well the specific circumstances of premises (light, space, noise, extra room for interview recording) before the meeting starts.

It is better to work in small groups with only about 5 people.

A preparation of the participants by their care-takers is very important for a good implementation of activities.

Be flexible! Try offering something different depending on the setting and the participants.

Try and then try again. Be realistic in the planning.

Sharing experiences with other European organisations generates more awareness about the own operational and professional role, showing the effectiveness of peer-to-peer learning approaches.

These kind of initiatives have a great motivational influence on the quality assurance of care services.

Legislative frames, consistent organisational structures, and the sound governance of social policies, of course have a crucial importance for the promotion of social innovation in the field of elderly care.

We have to report too that in some cases the respect of the social workers’ rights is still weak. Where the working conditions are very stressful, the social impacts produced by European partnerships, and by the efforts of the practitioners involved, will be border in a short-term vision, limited to the persons directly involved in the experience (direct and indirect beneficiaries).

As members of the adult learning community we are aware of this risk, and we are probably losers in facing alone the challenges for improving the “surrounding” conditions, taking as example of good practice the partner organisation Hrafnista in Iceland. Only an overall improvement of the local conditions can enable in parallel new drives for social innovation, manly in this time of crisis when, by contrary, new paths and solutions should be put in place investing in high quality social care services.

For granting equal opportunities in all European regions, all agents involved have still a lot to do, and with the INNOMEC proposal we offer our little hopefully useful contribution. Let us know your feedback! [take part to our POLL N°5 on Innomec.eu]

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Bibliography

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Žemaitaitytė I., Mikulionienė S.; Dromantienė L. The possibilities and limitation of transcultural biography work: Lithuanian case // SHS Web of Conferences : proceedings : 4th international interdisciplinary scientific conference. Society. Health. Welfare : Riga, Latvia, November 22–23, 2012. Les Ulis Cedex : EDP Sciences, 2014, ISBN 9782759816392. Vol. 10 (2014), P. 1-6. [DOAJ] [M.kr. 07S]

Zemaitaityte I., Educational activities for older adults development in Lithuanian social care institutions. Society, integration, education : proceedings of the international scientific conference, 20015. Rezekne: Rêzeknes Augstskola. p. 300-307.

European and international references

Eurostat. 2014. EUROPOP2013. European Population Projections, base year 2013. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database?node_code=proj [extracted on 2015.11.03]

Eurostat. 2015a. Life expectancy by age and sex [demo_mlexpec]. Retrieved from http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do [extracted on 2015.11.03]

Eurostat. 2015b. Populationon 1 January by five years age group and sex [demo_pjangroup]. Available at http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do [extracted on 2015.11.03]

HelpAge International, 2013. Global AgeWatch Index 2013: Insight report, London. Retrieved from http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/reports/global-agewatch-index-2013-insight-report-summary-and-methodology/

HelpAge International, 2015. Global AgeWatch Index 2015: Insight report, London. Retrieved from http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/reports/global-agewatch-index-2015-insight-report-summary-and-methodology/

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2012. Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: A Celebration and a Challenge. New York, and HelpAge International, London. Retrieved from: http://www.unfpa.org/publications/ageing-twenty-first-century

World Health Organisation - What is an age-friendly world? It is a place that enables people of all ages to actively participate in community activities. […]: https://extranet.who.int/agefriendlyworld/

World Health Organisation – Report 2015: http://www.who.int/ageing/events/world-report-2015-launch/en/

WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities – http://www.who.int/ageing/projects/age_friendly_cities_network/en/

Belfast Age Friendly http://www.makinglifebettertogether.com/age-friendly/

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Project partners

Speha Fresia Cooperative Company (Project Coordinator, IT)

Speha Fresia is a cooperative company active in the fields of lifelong learning, labour active policies, local sustainable development and social research, integrating its professional competences with a wide network of public and private institutions. The cooperative is a certified body for guidance and training in Latium and Sicily Regions.

inspire – Verein für Bildung und Management (AT)

inspire is a non-profit organisation and stands for professional concepts and products in the fields of education, culture, and labour. We aim at bringing together different people, diverse competences, and innovative approaches in projects to best meet our assignments.

Euro Idea (BE)

Euro-Idea is a non-profit organization created in 1994 by a group of trainers, all graduates in Policies and Practices of Adult Education of the Catholic University of Louvain. The purpose of the organization is to promote Adult Education, based on psycho-pedagogic principles. It analyses, in particular, the motivation to engage in training with the aim of acquiring new knowledge and competence.

Mykolas Romeris Universite (LT)

Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), a public institution, is an international university located in Northern Europe. Each year the University admits a large number of creative and talented young people. The University has almost 18,000 students who stand out as highly-motivated and enthusiastic about their chosen field of studies. Mykolas Romeris University promotes international activities and is proud of its participation in research on European and international levels.

Hrafnista – Continuing Care Communities (IS)

Hrafnista is a continuing care community with four elderly homes. About 600 residents live in Hrafnista. The homes are run by the “Seamen’s Day Council”, an organisation drawn from seamen’s societies in Reykjavík and other municipalities in the metropolitan area. Originally, the Hrafnista homes were intended for retired seamen and their widows, but they are now open to all who need residential or nursing-home facilities in their old age. Hrafnista makes a priority of high-quality nursing and medical care, rehabilitation and varied social activities. Hrafnista’s guiding principle is to uphold the right of those in its care to control their own affairs and choose how much they participate in the activities in the homes, the aim being to combine the best elements of life in one’s own premises and the security of a nursing home.

StudioCentro Veneto (IT)

StudioCentro Veneto sas (SCV in short) is a training and consultancy company founded by Toni Brunello in 1968, in Vicenza. It offers qualified services for micro and SMEs, public bodies and private organisations in the field of: educational training, general management, quality approaches, marketing and, above all, business transfer processes (research, training, first aid and continuous consultancy) with an approach aiming at valorising the tacit knowledge and know-how Senior entrepreneurs should transfer to Junior ones.

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INNOMEC GLOSSARY

Active Ageing

Active ageing is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. Active ageing applies to both individuals and population groups. It allows people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental wellbeing throughout the life course and to participate in society according to their needs, desires and capacities, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they require assistance.

Source: Active Ageing: A Policy Framework. A contribution of the World Health Organization to the Second United Nations World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, Spain, April 2002. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf

Active ageing is about adjusting our life practices to the fact that we live longer and are more resourceful and in better health than ever before, and about seizing the opportunities offered by these improvements. In practice it means adopting healthy life styles, working longer, retiring later and being active after retirement.

Source: “New Paradigm in Ageing Policy”, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/soc-prot/ageing/news/paradigm_en.htm

Ability to benefit

The point at which an adult qualifies for selected programs or services based on achievement results. Assessments approved by OAEL may be used to establish an “ability to benefit” and may result in an individual's acceptance or rejection for programs or services based on assessment scores.

Source: Adult Education, Glossary, http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/adulted/glossary.shtml

Adult Education

Adult Education services or instruction below the postsecondary level for individuals:

who have attained 16 years of age;

who are not enrolled or required to be enrolled in secondary school under State law; and;

who lack sufficient mastery of basic educational skills to enable them to function effectively in society or

who do not have a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, and have not achieved an equivalent level of education; or (e) who are unable to speak, read, or write the English language.

Source: Glossary of Adult Education Terms, http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/docs/04esguide/glossary.htm

Adult Basic Education (ABE)

Programs and services that target adults functioning below the ninth grade level based on an approved assessment.

Source: Adult Education, Glossary, http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/adulted/glossary.shtml

Age discrimination

Inappropriate behaviour (social pressure, restriction of rights) to people of all ages (young, middle and older) based on age stereotypes.

Source: Mikulionienė S. 2011. Socialinė gerontologija. Vadovėlis. Vilnius: Mykolo Romerio leidybos centras. [Social gerontology: textbook]

Age norms

Age-related behavioural rules, expectations, and standards governing the interaction of people. Age norms describe roles and behaviour, which are (not) acceptable and (un) desired for people of certain age.

Source: Mikulionienė S. 2011. Socialinė gerontologija. Vadovėlis. Vilnius: Mykolo Romerio leidybos centras. [Social gerontology: textbook]

Assessment

Methods of measuring learner progress, including state approved assessments, non-approved testing, staff evaluation, and self-reporting of learners.

Source: Adult Education, Glossary, http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/adulted/glossary.shtml

Distance Learning

The learner has been matched with a teacher, tutor, or volunteer with whom he/she has regular interaction with regard to the content of the distance learning curriculum, and who provides support throughout the distance learning experience. Distance learning is characterized by all of the following:

A separation of place and/or time between the learner(s) and the instructor.

The use of standardized curriculum.

The delivery of education or training that employs technology in at least one of the following four categories:

Computer Technology, such as the Internet or CD-ROM.

Video Technology, such as videoconferencing, cable, satellite linkage, and videotapes.

Audio graphic Technology, such as radio and audiotapes.

Telephone Technology, such as teleconferencing.

Support by a tutor, including help with content and assistance with technology, on line, on the telephone, or in person.

Source: Adult Education, Glossary, http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/adulted/glossary.shtml

Educational activities

The activities of educating or instructing; activities that impart knowledge or skill;

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/educational+activity

Generations

The concept of generations is widely used in different ways:

age groups or individuals at given life stages, such as youth, adulthood and old age;

historical generations, defined as birth cohorts with particular characteristics (i.e. Baby Boomers);

family generations – that is family based roles and structures (i.e. grandparent, parent, child, grandchild).

Source: Hagestad, G.; Uhlenberg, P. 2007. The Impact of Demographic Changes on Relations Between Age Groups and generations: A Comparative perspective. Schaie, K.W.; Uhlenberg, P. (Eds.) Social Structures: Demographic Change and the Well=Being of Older Adults. Springer Books, New York, p. 239-261.

Gerontology

Gerontology is a multidisciplinary science studying ageing from biological, psychological, and social perspectives.

Source: Phillips, Judith; Kristine Ajrouch, and Sarah Hillcoat-Nalletamby. Key concepts in social gerontology. London : Sage Publications, 2010. p. 118.

Healthy/Active Ageing

Healthy ageing is the process of optimizing opportunities for physical, social and mental health to enable older people to take an active part in society without discrimination and to enjoy an independent and good quality of life.

Source: Healthy Ageing, EU-funded project 2004 – 2007, http://www.fhi.se/Documents/English/International/conference-documentation/Healthy-ageing-project.pdf

Healthy ageing describes the ongoing activities and behaviours you undertake to reduce the risk of illness and disease and increase your physical, emotional and mental health. It also means combating illness and disease with some basic lifestyle realignment that can result in a faster and more enduring recovery.

Source: www.seniors.gov.au, http://www.seniors.gov.au/internet/seniors/publishing.nsf/Content/Healthy+ageing

Independent living

Living at home without the need for continuous help and with a degree of self-determination or control over one's activities.

Source: A Glossary of Terms for Community Health Care and Services for Older Persons, Ageing and Health Technical Report, Volume 5, WHO Centre for Health Development, 2004. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/wkc/2004/WHO_WKC_Tech.Ser._04.2.pdf

Individual ageing

A process whereby people accumulate years and progressively experience changes to their biological, social and psychological functioning as they move through different phases of the life course.

Source: Phillips, Judith; Kristine Ajrouch, and Sarah Hillcoat-Nalletamby. Key concepts in social gerontology. London : Sage Publications, 2010. p. 12.

Learning Activities

“any activities of an individual organized with the intention to improve his/her knowledge, skills and competence”.
The two fundamental criteria to distinguish learning activities from non-learning activities are:

the activity must be intentional (as opposed to random learning), so the act has a predetermined purpose;

the activity is organized in some way, including being organized by the learner himself/herself; it typically involves the transfer of information in a broader sense (messages, ideas, knowledge, strategies).

Source: Classification of Learning Activities – Manual. European Communities, 2006.

Older Senior Citizens / The “Fourth Age”

Older seniors are the group of people who are traditionally called the elderly. They are believed to be in the phase of their lives during which their physical, mental and social capacities and contributions to society gradually fade away. While we previously believed that people entered this group at retirement, we have now learned that this group consists of people in their eighties and nineties. We speak of the “older seniors” or the “fourth age”.
The Fourth Age is characterized as a period of increasing frailty. Frailty is not just a series of diseases, but more the natural ageing process linked to becoming weaker and losing the possibility to overcome diseases and social problems. Thus old age is also characterized by a number of medical and social problems. Old age ends with the death of the person.

Source: Text Analysis Report (V2.10), “Technology and the Elderly in the Popular Media”, SENIOR project, Deliverable D1.2, pg 9. http://globalseci.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/d12-text-analysisreport2. pdf

Middle age

The term “middle age” was a concept popularised in the 1960s to indicate a grey area between adulthood (30-40 years old) and retirement (affecting those 65 years and older). “Extended middle age” is now the term commonly used to indicate a continuation of this period but a change in circumstances (e.g., retirement). During extended middle age, the main physical and mental abilities remain unaltered though the person is ageing and gradually forced into the role of the senior citizen. As such, he or she is better profiled in terms of desired activity patterns, job opportunities, desired life habits, desired conditions rather than medical and social needs.
The “fourth age” applies to older senior citizens, people in their eighties and nineties. In this period, practically all people show substantial losses in physical mobility and cognitive functioning.

Source: “Ethics of e-Inclusion of Older People”, SENIOR Discussion Paper No. 2008/01, April 2008, http://www.cssc.eu/public/Ethics%20of%20e-Inclusion%20of%20older%20people%20- %20Bled%20%20Paper.pdf

Quality of Life

is “an individual’s perception of his or her position in life in the context of the culture and value system where they live, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept, incorporating in a complex way a person’s physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, personal beliefs and relationship to salient features in the environment.” (WHO, 1994). As people age, their quality of life is largely determined by their ability to maintain autonomy and independence.

Source: Active Ageing: A Policy Framework. A contribution of the World Health Organization to the Second United Nations World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, Spain, April 2002. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf

Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is a social process, built on social inequalities and leading to the marginalisation of individuals and groups as regards societal goals. Social inequalities (related to a series of factors: gender, ethnicity, age, education, employment, income, professional status, housing, family structure, disability, geographical location, etc.) are the basic roots of social exclusion. Exclusion is defined in relation to a goal: in the case of this project, the development of the information society / knowledge society (digital exclusion or e-exclusion). Exclusion occurs when individuals or social groups are left behind or do not benefit from equal opportunities to achieve societal goals.

Source: Analytic Framework – eInclusion and eAccessibility Priority Issues, eInclusion@EU Project: Strengthening eInclusion & eAccessibility Across Europe, Deliverable 1.1, October 2004. http://www.empirica.com/themen/einclusion/documents/eInclusion_Analytic-framework.pdf

Social Inclusion

The process which ensures that those at risk of poverty and social exclusion have the opportunities and resources necessary to participate in economic and social life, securing a standard of living that is considered acceptable in the society in which they live.

Source: Social Protection, Social Inclusion Glossary: Key terms explained, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_inclusion/glossary_en.pdf

Social inclusion is not only the symmetric counterpart of social exclusion, aiming at including those who are at risk of exclusion. The process of social inclusion relies on three dimensions: (1) overcoming the disadvantages resulting from social inequalities, in order to avoid exclusion processes; (2) harnessing the opportunities offered by the targeted societal goals, in order to reduce existing inequalities and improve the quality of life in society; (3) fostering participation and empowerment in upcoming societal processes, in order to improve individual and collective expression, civic commitment and democratic participation.

Source: Analytic Framework – eInclusion and eAccessibility Priority Issues, eInclusion@EU Project: Strengthening eInclusion & eAccessibility Across Europe, Deliverable 1.1, October 2004. http://www.empirica.com/themen/einclusion/documents/eInclusion_Analytic-framework.pdf

Population ageing

An ageing population is defined as a population in which the number of elderly (65+) is increasing relative to the number of 20-64 year olds.

Source: Population Europe: The Network of Europe‘s Leading Demographic Research Centres. Available at: http://www.population-europe.eu/Library/Glossary.aspx

Aging of population (also known as demographic aging, and population aging) is a summary term for shifts in the age distribution (i.e., age structure) of a population toward older ages.

Source: Gavrilov L.A., Heuveline P. “Aging of Population”. In: Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Population. New York, Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. Available at: http://www.galegroup.com/- servlet/ItemDetailServlet?-region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=M333&type=4&id=174029

Social Gerontology

Social Gerontology is a branch of gerontology, studying “social aspects of ageing”. It combines the knowledge on ageing (process), age (criteria) and older persons (population category) produced by different social sciences: sociology, demography, economics, social policy, social work, education science, gerogogics, etc.

Source: Phillipson, Chris. Ageing. Cambridge : Polity Press, 2013, p.5.

Vulnerable Groups

Groups that experience a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than the general population. Ethnic minorities, migrants, disabled people, the homeless, those struggling with substance abuse, isolated elderly people and children all often face difficulties that can lead to further social exclusion, such as low levels of education and unemployment or underemployment.

Source: Social Protection, Social Inclusion Glossary: Key terms explained, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_inclusion/glossary_en.pdf

Third and Fourth Age

In the sociological tradition third and fourth ages are “phases of the life course identified in terms of functions and roles”.
The third age is “the period for personal achievement and fulfilment”. The fourth age is “a time of dependence, decrepitude and death”.

Source: Phillips, Judith; Kristine Ajrouch, and Sarah Hillcoat-Nalletamby. Key concepts in social gerontology. London : Sage Publications, 2010. p. 213; 215.

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French version ISBN 978-88-941400-2-6

Title: “INNOMEC Manuel et Instruments pour une éducation adaptée au grand âge”

German version ISBN 978-88-941400-4-0

Title: “INNOMEC - Handbuch und Toolkit: Bildung im Alter”

Icelandic version ISBN 978-88-941400-6-4

Title: “Handbók og verkfærakista INNOMEC: Þú lærir svo lengi sem þú lifir!”

Italian version ISBN 978-88-941400-8-8

Title: “INNOMEC Manuale e Strumenti: l’educazione amica della grande età”

Lithuanian ISBN 978-88-941400-1-9

Title: “INNOMEC Vadovas ir priemonės: amžiui draugiškas švietimas”

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539829-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
INNOMEC - Innovative Management and Educational Practices in Elderly Care Centres