<< Background >>Services need to be developed where the elderly and their family can contribute on their own premises and on the basis of what they believe is important and meaningful to them. This will have to involve strengthening the user perspective and more emphasis on alternative thinking in the services. Alternative in the sense that the individual and next of kin must have more influence and control over services provided and decide what works. In this context, the use of peers and experienced workers may be appropriate measures.In recent years, in the health and welfare services, Peer Support Workers have been employed as a resource to promote the user perspective, strengthen the recovery orientation and better tailor the services to the needs of the users. When it comes to services for people with dementia, this has not yet been tested in Norway, but in the UK, there has been testing of such services on a small scale (Stott et al., 2017). There are two possible types of Peer Support Workers. (1) People in the early stages of developing dementia, and (2) next of kin to people with dementia.<< Objectives >>− The aim of the project is to help create sustainable and competency-enhancing services for people with dementia by finding new ways to involve users and their next of kin in service development.− The project is also going to help reduce the shame, stigma, and taboo associated with dementia, so that people affected are seeking help at an early stage.− Testing of Peer Support Workers in dementia care, primary for next of kin, but also for people in an early stage of dementia − Establish collaboration with involved parties in the project across countries− Find out what the status is of the services for people with dementia in selected municipalities. Clarify the role and function of experienced staff in dementia− Develop guidelines for PSW in dementia care− Disseminate information about the project to involved parties and other interested parties− Raising awareness about the status of elderly people/dementia as well as about the peer support workers and family caregivers in all participant countries.<< Implementation >>− Mapping the baseline situation− Establish the project organization− Collaboration meetings between parties to the project− Recruit and engage PSW (Peer Support Worker)− Conduct training of PSW − Testing of PSW<< Results >>Results: (intellectual outputs) double check− Report on the effects of PSW in dementia care− Developed a strategy for how to involve relatives in dementia care - advocacy− Guidelines for recruiting and qualifying of PSW− Developed training courses for PSW in dementia Care− Develop a digital platform for collaboration and networking between partners, participants and stakeholders − Established measures that can continue after the project has ended− Established a network for sharing of experience and knowledge specific for community based dementia care

In Europe, in case of chronic illnesses, 80% of all care is provided by informal carers – i.e. people who provide unpaid care to someone with a chronic disease, disability or other long-lasting health or care need, outside of a professional or formal framework. While caring for a loved one can be a source of great personal satisfaction, it does create its own set of challenges. Although in households when a member has a chronic illness or disability one of the relatives is often designated as “primary care” (i.e. the person bearing the main care responsibilities), we know that when there is a change in one family member, it affects all family members (Wright and Leahey, 2000). A functional relationship among caregivers and care recipient is the key for a successful change of roles and the adaptation of the family. Therefore, to face this change, a new balance should be established in the family. On the other hand, we know that people belonging to different age groups and with different kinships to the care-recipient (young children, adult children, grandchildren, spouses…) can have different experiences and perspective on the burden of care, so it is necessary to take all of them in account in order to be able to provide a comprehensive and effective support to families with caring responsibilities. In order to respond to all these needs the S.IN.CA.L.A. partnership believes in the importance of developing and piloting a model of pedagogical interventions based on a family-focused approach able to identifying strengths as well as vulnerabilities of all family members, addressing the challenges that might arise from the disease and building individual and family resilience. The educational tools developed will be based on experiences carried out in Greece, by partner Alzheimer Hellas, and will be adapted and transferred to all other country contexts.During the implementation of the project, the main outcome has been the development of Intellectual Output 1. This resulted in the research report focusing on the family member's experiences of caring role. With the research report the partnership created literature review that informed the methodology and built towards data collection and analysis on the respective findings. For the data collection, use of focus group interviews brought together 86 participants from the partnership countries (spouses, children and grandchildren of 60+ family member with care needs). Alongside these activities the partnership formed guidelines for such data collection, assembled data collection kit, created qualitative data analysis forms and delivered the research report with the input from the professionals working with carers in partnership countries, 42 in total. Such approach validated the findings, improved the overall process and informed the build-up of following Intellectual outputs. Especially, the Intellectual output 2, which would have resulted in pedagogical intervention tailored for family carers in partnership countries.In order to communicate the aims of the project, activities and the results of the Intellectual output 1, different type of dissemination activities were completed - project leaflets, press releases, newsletters, articles, presentations etc. The target audience varied based on the type of activity, 20-40 people in audience to 15 000 visitors on the websites monthly. Efforts were made to reach different audiences, starting from the family carers, social workers on local level, working up to national level policy makers and support networks.The main practical results expected on the completion of the project would have been: (1) a tested pedagogical method based on narration, adapted to different EU-country contexts, and targeting household who are caring for older dependent family members with the goal of increasing their family-resilience; (2) a MOOC, to transfer the results achieved and the lessons learnt to a wider audience of professionals. We therefore expect to make available a methodology that educators, social workers and carer support workers can use in their local contexts to engage with families with caring responsibilities in order to improve the resilience of the household and mitigate the negative impacts of caring in the households. The project was coordinated by MTÜ Eesti Omastehooldus and developed by a diverse partnership of NGOs working with older persons and their carers in Portugual (CASO50+), Italy (Anziani e non solo), Slovenia (Spominčica /Forget-me-not - Alzheimer Slovenia) and Co-Creation Support CLG (Ireland). The expert partner, is the Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Alzheimer Hellas).For professionals and stakeholders, we expect an increased consciousness of how providing care can impact on the whole family and the capacity to use this deeper understanding to improve and innovate their services, including through the introduction of narrative techniques. On local stakeholders and communities, we expect an increased awareness of the challenges of caring at societal level and on innovative experiences and practices carried out in other countries that could be of inspiration for new policies and services. We also expect increased openness towards other European countries and cultures, increased awareness of the importance to adopt a whole-family approach and an increased awareness about the contribution of the European Union activities towards the support to informal carers. In whole, the expectations were met and the innovative approach created momentum for different interventions in favor of family carers.

Dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. One of the main problems in long-term care services is the lack of knowledge of professionals and direct care staff on symptoms of dementia, changes at the physiological, cognitive and behavioral levels and interventions in activities of daily living. There are different VET programmes for care staff, however, stakeholders think that learning content about dementia is not enough considered in the training curriculums of the European Countries at EQF level 4. The European strategy for the prevention of dementia has pointed out that the situation of dementia requires great efforts in national VET systems to provide caregivers with a global overview of dementia in order to face day-to-day problems (with orientation, communication, etc.) and to break taboos of the topic of dementia. In the same way, it would be important to improve professional knowledge and skills on dementia in the community healthcare services of the European countries (Alzheimer Europe, 2019).In this sense, the Danish Dementia Research Centre (DDRC) has developed a set of open educational resources (the app “Videns on Demens” and the e-learning platform “ABC dementia care”) addressed to basic care staff and professionals in long-term care services. The app is a widely used observation tool for caregivers available in Danish language and is considered as a successful experience since in 2016 it was used 52,550 times (user sessions) and had 15,575 users. In 2017 they considered managing about 26,000 online users in the platform ABC dementia-care.With this in mind, AppForDementia project partners have agreed on to create a set of open educational and multilingual resources on dementia, based on the Danish experience, with the purpose of implementing these resources in the national VET programmes for apprentices and professional caregivers in long-term care services.The specific objectives of the project are the following:• To define a methodological framework for transferring the Danish open educational resources to participant countries.•To propose an international training curriculum about “Symptoms and interventions for people with dementia” at EQF level 4 described in terms of training units and learning outcomes.•To develop a set of learning contents and training materials on symptoms and interventions for people with dementia. •To create and test a multilingual educational APP addressed to care staff, trainers, students, and professionals of the care sector.•To create and test a multilingual e-learning course on Dementia symptoms addressed to trainers, care-staff, and professionals.The project considers about 25 associated organizations in the different activities of the project. The target group is estimated about 10.000 people.The direct target groups of the activities of this project are the following: • Caregivers, basic care staff, nurses, and professionals in the long-term care services • Trainers and teachers in care educations • Students at care educations • Decision makers in the field of education However, relatives of people with dementia will also benefit from the project results and the final beneficent is the person suffering from dementia.The results of the Project are the following:-A methodological framework for OERS, based on a training curriculum about “Symptoms and interventions for people with dementia” at EQF level 4.- International seminar, multiplier events and workshops for developing open educational resources.- An educational app and an open e-learning course for care staff, trainers and students in the care sector. The most important expected impact is the improvement of the capacity and competencies of caregivers and the competencies of teachers/trainers/educators to be able to take care of and reply professionally to the specific and particular needs of people affected by Dementia. As a consequence, the app and the other results of this project could increase the quality of life for people with dementia and help to prevent abuse and neglect of the elderly.The consortium of the project is formed by an NGO managing a group of nursing homes in several Spanish regions (MENSAJEROS, ES); a vocational training centre in Denmark (SOSU OSTJYLLAND, DK); a NGO in the social sector in Italy (ANCIANI E NON SOLO, IT); an association for elderly care sector in Romania (HABILITAS ASSOCIATIA, RO).

Screening for Abuse Victims among Elderly (SAVE) project aims to improve identification and intervention on violence against older persons in social and health care services and improve the teachers/trainers knowledge and skills in teaching/training in the area. That area of social and health care services is becoming more and more important because Europe is facing an accelerated process of aging, which will increase in the next years (the percentage of persons aged over 65 years old is projected to be of 29,5% in 2060 - EUROPOP2010). The extent of elder abuse can be expected to grow with it (WHO. Media Centre 2017). However, it is widely understood that violence against older persons is underreported. The reasons for this are that the social and health care providers are inadequately trained in how to recognize violence and support older victims of domestic violence. There are also deficient national healthcare guidelines and lacking best practices for dealing with violence of older victims.Using screening tools for identification is rare in European health care services. SAVE project will use in earlier researches validated screening instruments to help professionals to recognize and assess violence and neglect of older persons. Screening for elder abuse is defined as a process of obtaining information about violent experiences in a caring or family relationship from older or vulnerable persons who do not have obvious sign of violence such as physical injuries. The rationale for screening among non-symptomatic persons is that identification may prevent future violence and reduce risk of future health impacts resulting from violence. Screening is considered particularly important for problems with serious health implications, and where overall rates of identification are considered low. This is certainly the case for elder abuse and neglect. (Margot J. Schofield 2017). As many as 80 percent of elder abuse cases may not be diagnosed (WHO 2008).Elder abuse is important to recognize because of significant psychological and physical consequences of violence, including cognitive impairment/dementia, depression and anxiety (Carmel Bitondo-Dyer et al 2000; Joan M. Cook et al 2011), bone or joint problems, digestive problems, high blood pressure and heart and lung problems (Lazenbatt et al 2010; Bonnie S. Fisher et al 2011), suicidal thoughts and attempts (Barron 2007) and poorer overall life expectancy (Charles P. Mouton 2003).Types of elder abuse include: emotional, physical, sexual and financial violence, neglect and violation of personal rights (Luoma et al. 2011). The prevalence rates in Europe vary between 0,8 % - 29,3 %; for men 0,7 % - 15 % and women 0,9 % - 23,3 %. (Liesbeth De Donder et al 2011). There are estimations that abuse as a problem might be broader in the future because of significantly fast growing amount of older people in many European countries. (Stankunas Mindaugas et al 2016).SAVE project will target:-social and health care professionals working in home care, residential care facilities, health centres and hospitals-social and health care teachers and trainers-local/regional social and health care decision makers in the communitySpecific objectives of the project include:-increase knowledge of screening tools and their suitability in identification of violence against older persons in social and health care services -improve capacity of social and health care professionals to identify and intervene and support and refer the cases of violence against older persons to relevant services -develop educators’ competences to teach professionals how to deal with violence against older persons and to support and mentor them -produce an interactive training program for improving active and innovative learning of social and health care teachers, trainers and professionals in identification and intervention in case of violence against older persons.SAVE project will produce a literature review about the number and quality of screening instruments for older adult’s mistreatment. Based on the review the partners will develop the country specific recommendations for the use of screening instruments. A training curriculum and material on identification and intervention on violence against older persons will also be produced. The training curriculum will be a special component of social and health care professionals’ training and teaching. It will concentrate on special features of elder abuse and its identification by using validated screening instruments. The piloting of screening instruments will lead to identification and intervention procedures in the work places. Online course will be developed based on the training curriculum. In the end of the project the country specific recommendations for the use of screening instruments will be synthesize as European level recommendations.