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Webinar 30 June 2020 | Age-friendly housing in the context of the COVID-19 crisis

  • Save the date !  Tue, Jun 30, 2020 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CEST
  • Register for free to this webinar here.

The measures aiming to contain the spread of COVID-19 could be resumed in the instruction “Stay At Home”. For many people living in poor housing conditions, this advice would not necessarily contribute to protect their health. For older persons who are at risk of severe outcomes if infected by the COVID-19, staying isolated at home could also result in worsen health status due to isolation, depression, or the absence of care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also proven that congregated settings, including residential and care homes for older adults, put residents and workers at higher risk of contamination due to living in close proximity. Such settings are all the more inadequate to protect the residents’ health that many of them are living with underlying comorbidities. The reported figures show that older people living in residential care homes in Europe have suffered like no other group from the impact of the epidemic: on average, half of the deaths related to COVID-19 took place in care homes.

The COVID-19 crisis harshly reminded us that the current care models need to change.  Our care policies and services must shift from crowded care residences to the provision of quality health and social care services in people’s homes and communities (see also this article in Spanish in the ‘El Independent’ journal). Such a shift would offer new opportunities to maintain social ties and a personal lifestyle that are core to our fulfilment and emotional wellbeing.

A preventive approach to health should also be reflected in our built environment. An age-friendly housing stock offers opportunities for all of us to be able to age in our communities while maintaining our intrinsic capacity and personal autonomy, as we engage in our later years.

In this one-hour webinar, the European project “Homes4Life” invites experts to discuss how an age-friendly approach to housing is more than ever needed to ensure people can age in healthy environments.

We are glad to announce that will be part of the conversation:

  • Alice Pittini from Housing Europe, the European network of public, cooperative and social housing, that published “#StayAtHome and Europe’s housing crisis” commenting on how the COVID-19 crisis exposed the shortcomings of our housing policies;
  • Holly Holder from the Centre for Ageing Better, a UK charitable foundation that wrote, in the middle of the pandemic, “Keeping people safe at home? What self-isolation means for those living in poor housing” elaborating on the issues faced by older people living in poor quality homes during the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Alfonso Lara Montero, Chief Executive at the European Social Network (ESN), the independent network for local public social services in Europe, will expand on how the COVID-19 crisis emphasised the role of care providers in creating supportive and enabling home environments.

We invite you to join us for this exciting conversation!

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International Digital Health Cooperation for Preventive, Integrated, Independent and Inclusive Living

Homes4Life is featured in the latest newsletter of IDIH – the International Digital Health Cooperation for Preventive, Integrated, Independent and Inclusive Living.

Our partner Università Politecnica delle Marche – Prof. Gian Marco Revel – is an expert member of IDIH’s group focused on Independent and Connected Living. He gave an interview which promotes the Homes4Life age-friendly homes supporting health and well-being.

Read the full interview in the IDIH May newsletter here.

The whole newsletter is also available as a PDF here (full interview on page 23).

 

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Homes4Life organises a series of webinars on age-friendly housing related topics

The partners of the Homes4Life project are glad to announce that a series of webinars will be organised throughout June and July 2020.

Their objective will be to present the work and studies carried out so far since the beginning of the project, to discuss their outcomes and perspectives, but also to tackle crucial questions related to the concept of age-friendly housing.

External experts will be invited as well and will share their visions. All webinars will be accessible to all and for free.

The 1st webinar will be specific to the Spanish context and will focus on the challenges and opportunities that represents having access to a home for the whole life (NB: This event will be held in Spanish only):

Una vivienda para toda la vida: reto y oportunidad

  • 11th June, 2020, 10:00-11:00
  • More information and registration here.

Other webinars – in English – will focus on:

  • the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis on age-friendly housing
  • the taxonomy developed during the Homes4Life project
  • the Certification Scheme on age-friendly housing proposed by Homes4life partners.

More information to come very soon !

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Pop-Up Ecosystem 5th Webinar – Social care and Home care in COVID Times

ECHAlliance is organising a webinar on Wednesday 13th May at 13:00 CET focused on Social Care & Home Care in COVID Times.

As the COVID-19 emergency has unfolded across the globe the impact on health and care systems has been clear to see. Less clear at the beginning but starkly obvious now is the impact on Social Care, Community Care and Home Care has been as if not more dramatic. Lack of equipment, isolation and remote monitoring and support have become crucial.

In the 5th of the series of Pop-Up Ecosystem, this webinar will feature again ECHAlliance ecosystems and members from around the globe to hear how they have tackled the crisis in care and most importantly how they have used digital health solutions to continue to provide that care that is so vital.

Registration here

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COVID impact on community health and social services across Europe

In the face of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on community health and social services across Europe, the European Social Network (ESN)’s CEO Alfonso Lara Montero has co-authored a declaration supporting a necessary change in the long-term care model in Spain.

While the declaration was drafted against the difficulties faced by care professionals to support the most vulnerable in Spain, which has become one of the most affected countries, the analysis and the proposals made may be applicable to many other European countries.

The declaration states that this health crisis has revealed the inadequacy of care systems to cope with the vast numbers of already fragile and vulnerable people who have become sick as a consequence of the pandemic. The analysis of this situation should help us identify and assess potential risks to inform future actions in community care. This analysis may include ensuring continuity of care, coordination between services but also between health and social care systems, addressing who is responsible for what, and balancing values and care with people’s health and freedoms.

Among the various recommendations, the declaration fosters the design of environments for a meaningful life:

This involves new models of architectural design, organisational and management formulas that are as close as possible to living in one’s home. These models encourage living environments based on guaranteeing privacy, assuring personalised care, reducing staff turnover, and organising meaningful activities per people’s choice and in contact with the community.

The declaration concludes that the current situation can become an opportunity to achieve better care for the people who need it, progressing towards communities of care that commit to ensure that the participation of the most vulnerable becomes a priority.

Read the full declaration here

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Investing in later life : A toolkit for social services providing care for older people

The European Social Network (ESN) released a toolkit for social services providing care for older people. This toolkit is the result of the ESN work on ageing and care between 2014 and 2016, mainly through its working group on ageing and care, its crosscutting work on integrated social services, and the work on the social services workforce in the framework of its 2014-2017 strategy.

The objective of this toolkit is to provide recommendations and examples of innovative practice for senior professionals working in social services providing care for older people.

The report acknowledges that the shift of health and social care systems’ focus from reaction to prevention of ill health and early detection of risk factors is still ongoing. The benefits for this shift to prevent and delay ill health, thereby promoting and enabling older people to live a healthier, independent life for longer, and to reduce demand for expensive health and social care, have been widely documented. However, preventionis often seen through the medical lens, which can neglect important social, behavioural and environmental aspects of prevention.

Get the toolkit here.

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Homes4Life in a webinar on European funding for research and innovation

Homes4Life partner R2M Solution is organising a series of online webinars called ‘R2M Online Academy’.

On Tuesday 5th May 2020, Homes4Life was presented within a session focused on how to get involved in Horizon 2020 European collaborative research and innovation projects. The presentation detailed available funding and their mechanisms.

R2M Solution presenting Homes4Life in a webinar on European R&I

This webinar was organised in Italian but it might be replicated in English and other languages in the upcoming weeks.

The webinar has been recorded and is available to watch here.

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COVID-19 and virtual assistants in the context of smart homes

A recent paper by Laura Sheerman, Hannah R., Marston, Charles Musselwhite, and Deborah Morgan elaborates on the potential of Virtual Assistants (VAs) at times of pandemic.
Smart age-friendly ecosystem framework. This figure has been reproduced from Marston & van Hoof (2019) under a CC BY 4.0 license.
The paper refers to age-friendly environments and gives examples of how VAs and IoT can support independent living at home, including at times of COVID-19. The research highlights the risks of digital divide, accessibility for persons with speech impairments, and the issue of affordability.
Read the paper here.