Summary
Regional initiative launched in 2017 in close collaboration with Ageing@coimbra and AgeINfuture, reference sites on Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA). Has since had five editions, cancelled only in 2020 due to COVID-19, with 711 applications received in total. Goals are to encourage active and healthy ageing initiatives across the region allowing to: 1) identify innovative good practices in the scope of quality of life and ageing; 2) publicly recognize the actors involved, whether from public, private or social sectors; 3) disseminate knowledge to support adoption and scaling-up in other territories; 4) support identification of the age-friendliest territories in Centro Region. By recognising and diffusing good practices (GP) developed by a broad range of stakeholders, and for that an online catalogue is available, it also seeks to empower and involve older people as critical agents of change. Finalists of each edition present their practices during the Annual Regional Congress on AHA with prizes and honourable mentions given by category. These are: Knowledge+, GP that value research and technologies on AHA; Health+, GP that improve physical and mental health and quality of life of older persons in health and long-term care; Life+ Participation, GP that promote autonomy and facilitate daily activity and participation in social, cultural, labour and civic life of older citizens; Life+ Learning: GP that stimulate lifelong learning through formal and non-formal education. Winners are rewarded with a visit to regions considered age-friendly in order to foster mutual learning and exchange of experiences.
Planning and Implementation
-
What was the challenge you were trying to address?
Centro is the second Portuguese region with the highest proportion of older people and expected to increase over the nest decades. In 2017, year of first edition, 24% of regional population was 65+ years old, against 21.5% in the country. The regional ageing ratio was 194 against 155 in PT. Between 2018 and 2080, according to National Statistics Projections of Resident Population, in Centro region total population will have decreased from 2.2M to 1.5M and the share of people over 65 will grow from 24.3% to 40.3%. Ageing represents a major achievement for societies and a milestone in development, but it also challenges the quality of life in older ages. The answer to this challenge must be given at both individual and collective levels, lying on the principles of active and healthy ageing, including healthy lifestyles and behavioural change throughout a long lifespan. With the award, CCDRC wanted to get a better grasp on the regional ecosystem and their provision and delivery of services, products and responses to this challenge, also to identify the possible shortcomings, key gaps and bottlenecks. On the other hand, this would also provide the opportunity to reward and give visibility to practices on active and healthy ageing which can be benchmarked in other territories.
-
Who were you trying to impact?
Older people in general, Older people with chronic health conditions or disability, Older people with vulnerabilities, Both older and younger people
-
What sectors were you targeting?
Education, Health, Housing, Labour, Social protection, Transportation, Urban development, Other
-
How did older people participate?
Older people were not directly involved
Lessons learned
-
Please describe how collaboration worked in your initiative.
Ageing@coimbra, a reference site on AHA since 2013, is a consortium emerged in Coimbra supported by an ecosystem of organizations related with health and innovation seeking to enhance the role of the elderly in society and apply good practices in favor of their general well-being and active and healthy ageing in Centro Region. The operational group is composed by the CCDRC, University of Coimbra (coordinator), Regional Health Administration (ARSC), Municipality of Coimbra, Nursing School of Coimbra, Pedro Nunes Institute (R&D unit and business incubator), and Cáritas (non-profit organization working with older people). Recently, a new consortium has been granted the status of Reference site on AHA by the European Commission and RSCN, the AgeINfuture, led by the University of Beira Interior (coordinator) and three Polytecnic Institutes - Guarda, Castelo Branco and Viseu. Not only the consortiums play an important role by promoting the online platform with all the good practices collected and by disseminating the award when the call for proposals is open, engaging the local stakeholders to participate, but also in the assessment process of the award. The panel of jurors is composed by 9 members, well balanced in terms of territory, skills and knowledge, ensuring overall coherence and consistency throughout the process. A short list of finalists (best results in each category) is invited to present their practice before the jury are the winners and the honourable mentions are then decided.
-
What was the impact of your initiative on older people, their families, and/or their communities?
The impact is mainly felt by the regional ecosystem on AHA, as they are urged to submit applications every year. The fact that they are candidates, finalists or winners allows them to use this information in future applications for funding, adding value to the project. So far, 711 applications were submitted in total, coming from over one hundred different promoters per year, not to mention the hundreds of partnerships involved. Also, some of the best practices have been enhanced or replicated by other promoters across the region, making it possible to reach out and benefit more people. In addition, each practice submitted is assessed by a set of criteria, namely the ' Impact on the organisation, on local health and social care systems, on the community (highlighting the creation of partnerships) and on the older person (including family members and carers)'. Other criteria are: Quality and Innovation; Level of maturity; Replication to other territories and transferability potential. In 2021 edition, a module was added to understand the pandemic impact in the implementation of good practices on AHA, with 15% mentioning their initiatives arose from this sanitary crisis or as an answer to it; 64% assuming at least some impact, with many promoters combining different coping and carrying out the programmed activities; and 21% stating no impact or not replying to these questions. Overall, Life+ practices were suspended, postponed, resized, domiciled and/or transferred to the virtual world, whereas in Health+ it was necessary to develop and/or expand them.
-
What issues did you face, and how did you address them?
CCRDC is a regional, decentralized public authority from the Territorial Cohesion Ministry, with joint authority with the Ministry of Environment. It has financial and administrative autonomy and its mission is to implement environmental, territorial planning, and regional development policies in Centro region. It also supports regional services coordination, gives technical assistance to municipalities and its associations, and is responsible for the negotiation and management of EU structural funds in the region. In Portugal, active and healthy ageing is a topical issue traditionally managed by the Ministries of Health and Social Security. The biggest challenge was to affirm CCDRC and a relevant player in this specific field of work, considered crucial for regional development, taking in consideration the ageing population of Centro Region. CCDRC was a founding member of ageing@coimbra and a partner of AgeINfuture, the two reference sites on AHA. Through the strong involvement of these regional consortiums in the award, one from the coastal area and the other from the interior, it was possible to have a well-balanced coverage in terms of territory, stakeholders and population engaged. Additionally, this couples with a strong media and social networks campaign and the use of CCDRC's mailing lists for dissemination.
-
What lessons did you learn from implementing this initiative?
1) For information collection, it is very important to inquire the state of the art (particularly in Knowledge+), for better understanding of the degree of innovation and maturity of the practice. 2) To avoid misinterpretations of information, the geographical coverage of the practice and the type of entity promoting needs to be well defined and secure that applications refer to good practices and not 'good ideas'. However, the application form cannot be too complex to discourage its completion by different stakeholders nor too simplified that will not gather enough information for an effective assessment. 3) For the assessment process, it is important to keep a stable panel of jurors along the editions, well balanced in terms of skills and knowledge, securing effective monitoring of resubmissions but mainly to ensure overall coherence and consistency throughout the process.
-
Do you have any other reflections you would like to share?
Our initiative, launched in 2017 and strongly inspired in the basic pillars of active ageing suggested by the World Health Organization, has since then evolved with each edition. The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing has been a source of inspiration as it provides the framework to address a concerted and coherent action on active and healthy ageing. In fact, our main source of inspiration and learning regarding ageism itself is the Decade, the way it emphasizes the need to combat stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards people based on their age. This has been embedded in the rulebook, revised and improved in every edition and in the annual report of the Award published by CCDRC. Furthermore, the knowledge available in the Decade Platform is much appreciated to support readings for other ongoing activities and to plan new activities.