<< Objectives >>We wish patients and informal caregivers from Greece, Italy and Denmark have access to affordable and user friendly nonclinical e-health solutions. With the project “E-Health4Cancer” partners from Greece (K3, EPIONI), Italy (University of Naples Federico II, UNINA), and Denmark (DCHE) aim to exchange good practices in the support of adults with cancer and their informal caregivers through the use of nonclinical e-health solutions.<< Implementation >>Systematic Literature Review and Compilation of a Good Practices Guide on nonclinical e-health solutions in Europe.3day Learning Activity & Project Meeting at the University of Naples, ItalyFinal Meeting - Workshop in Thessaloniki, Greece<< Results >>Patients and informal caregivers from Greece, Italy and Denmark will have easier access to affordable and user-friendly nonclinical e-health solutions.A comprehensive guide on Good Practices on nonclinical e-health solutions in Europe.Increased synergies between partner organizations and cross-fertilisation among the broad spectrum of expertise and background on the consortium

The majority of patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and patients with kidneys insufficiency rely on their family members for their daily activities and medical care, since the family is the best source for providing care to these patients. Studies have shown that good family support has a positive effect on successful patients’ adaptation to dialysis treatment and compliance with a dietary regimen. However, sometimes patients do not follow the dialysis treatment’ restrictions due to their perception that they have become a ‘burden’ to their family. Thus, family caregivers play an important role in the provision of effective communication to dialysis patients when it is appropriate. However, caregiving is regarded as a chronic stressor due to the demanding activities and the emotional burden of caring.A large proportion of family members take full responsibility for making decisions about the Renal Replacement Method (RRT=hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or transplantation) the patients will follow, taking into consideration the opportunity to maintain their lifestyle and the possible risk of the therapy. They also take into account their priorities and their capability to manage home hemodialysis. However, sometimes family caregivers have to take difficult decisions, such as interruption of dialysis therapy or referring their patients to hospice services .Frequent hospitalizations of the patients and factors associated with the disease can lead to the deterioration of depression and reduction of caregiver’s quality of life. Identifying family, professionals or individuals ‘caregiver burden’ early will optimize the well-being of the caregiver. Therefore, the evaluation of caregiver’s status and determination of their needs are very important. The ECARIS (Educating Carers of Kidney Patients) project will focus on the needs and the problems addressed by informal carers and professionals who work with carers of patients with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) from Greece, Spain, Denmark, and Italy. It will attempt to provide education, support, and encouragement for caregivers of patients with ESRD. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is the last stage (stage five) of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This means kidneys are only functioning at 10 to 15 percent of their normal capacity. When Chronic Kidney Disease develops into ESRD, dialysis, peritoneal dialysis or a kidney transplant is necessary for the patient so to stay alive. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is an aggravated condition in renal function in which the body will gradually lose its ability to maintain electrolyte and metabolic balance leading to increased blood urea and its retention in the body. Dialysis and Peritoneal dialysis are methods of removing unnecessary fluids and wastes when the kidneys are unable to perform their task due to impairment. A kidney transplant is the transfer of a healthy kidney from one person into the body of a person who has little or no kidney function.The ECARIS (Educating Carers of Kidney Patients) project aims at exploring ways of supporting caregivers that can have beneficial effects on the outcomes for both the patient and the caregiver. Discussing coping skills can improve the caregiver quality of life even in the difficult environment of end-of-life care. Psychosocial intervention can have significant, positive effects on caregivers’ burden and improve their satisfaction with their role. The benefits of informing/learning/teaching caregivers are numerous and include issues such as illness education, medication concordance improvements, explanation of prognostic expectations, and various other psychosocial and practical inputs. Although it involves a lot of work, the payoff more than rewards the effort. Carers become virtual members of the multidisciplinary team, and their contribution to care plans is valued and respected. Relapses are spotted earlier and admissions become less frequent as carers become more adept at managing problems and knowing whom, where, and when to call for assistance.The involvement of kidney patients’ associations, dialysis units and hospitals' nephrology departments, caregivers' associations and healthcare professionals will contribute to exchanging and recording caregivers’ experiences/concerns/fears and highlighting the problems caregivers face at these countries. The project with all these participants is going to boost the awareness and improve the skills of caregivers in social and health field. The participating organizations' goal is this project to become the first successful hotbed of further connections across Europe.

<< Background >>According to OECD research, by 2018, in the EU, around 7% of the population (over 60) have dementia. Studies foresee that this percentage will rise to over 8% by 2040 due to population ageing; the higher the number of elderly people in a country, the bigger the proportion of people with dementia.During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone has been negatively affected by the crisis, but the more vulnerable have been disproportionately impacted. Many people with dementia have been experiencing a worsening of symptoms due to lack of access to care and social isolation.Moreover, adults and caregivers looking after people with dementia have experienced an intensification in stress and burden for both the lack of knowledge on the behavioural and attitudinal changes that characterise dementia and the anti-COVID restrictive measures that have forced everyone at home. Amongst the stressors, physical, emotional, and economic pressures are the ones that are affecting the most informal carers. For this reason, greater support for them is needed, including education on how to assist better in caring, a higher understanding of dementia itself, and the acquisition of educational methodologies to enable the engagement of people with dementia in cognitive activities.With this project, we aim to provide support to all those adults who look after people with dementia on a daily basis, with a specific focus on relatives, legal guardians, and informal carers, by developing useful training materials to decrease the physical, emotional, and economic burden to the families with suffering patients.The direct target groups of this project will be adults and relatives who are informal carers of people suffering from dementia.Beneficiaries will be people with dementia, including its associated diseases, NGOs working with senior citizens or dementia or Alzheimer's disease, nursing home facilities, residential care facilities, social workers and nurses, and volunteers providing assistance to people with dementia.<< Objectives >>Specific objectives of InfoCARE will be:- To provide families, adults and legal guardians of people suffering from dementia with useful tools, tips, and activities based on non-formal education (R1);- To raise awareness on dementia and its symptoms amongst their families and caregivers, and in the society;- To develop ad-hoc training contents based on a strong working methodology and NFE (R1);- To improve the social interaction between people suffering from dementia and their informal carers and families. specific innovative devices, such as Amazon Echo Show or Spot and Google Nest Hub (R2),- To increase digital skills and literacy amongst target groups;- To enhance caring and assistance conditions for caregivers;- To create a network between informal carers of people with dementia through support groups (R3);-To diminish the stigma surrounding people with dementia through the creation of innovative activities and the extensive use of new technologies and NFE.- To implement 2 piloting activities to directly involve the target groups, that will therefore provide useful feedback for the development of high-quality material;<< Implementation >>To reach the project’s goals, we aim to develop the following results:R1 - Training on Cognitive activities - Mind-Stimulating Activities for Dementia Patients;R2 - Remote caring - Mind-Stimulating Activities through new technologies;R3 - Development of support groups for relatives and legal guardians of people with dementia.Specific activities will be developed to reach goals and objectives:- Definition of an ad-hoc working methodology, resulting from the careful analysis led by the project consortium, in order to meet the needs of the target groups (R1);- Development of 4 modules which constitute the content of the Training (R1);- Adaptation of the activities of the R1 so that they can be performed through specific innovative devices, such as Amazon Echo Show or Spot and Google Nest Hub (R2);- Providing digital literacy support for the informal carers (R2);- 3 piloting activities involving at least 75 pax;- 10 case studies of successful support groups (R3).5 Transnational Project Meetings (TPMs) will be organised to assess strategic milestones of project outcomes, to validate working methodologies, perform interim quality and budget control, and reinforce the transnational partnership.<< Results >>The project results that will be implemented are the following:R1 - Training on Cognitive activities - Mind-Stimulating Activities for Dementia Patients; implemented with the extensive support of non-formal education. It will consist in the development of 4 Modules containing useful activities to stimulate the cognitive abilities in patients with dementia in case they deteriorate. A pilot activity will be implemented to test the materials and gather useful feedback from the target groups in order to deliver high-quality material.R2 - Remote caring - Mind-Stimulating Activities through new technologies; adapting the activities of R1 in a way that they can be performed remotely with the support of new technologies and devices such as, Amazon Echo Show or Spot and Google Nest Hub. In this way, we will provide a practical response to the COVID-19 restrictive measures of social distancing. A pilot activity will also be performed with the target groups.R3 - Development of support groups for relatives and legal guardians of people with dementia. A training to support informal caregivers to create support groups, in order to share experience, best practices, and to encourage them to overcome the stigma surrounding people with dementia. It will consist of 4 Modules and a pilot training at the end of which each partner will collect two best examples of support groups in their community, for a total of at least 10 case studies.All the deliverables and project outcomes will be produced in English and translated into project partners’ national languages to enhance their shareability and exploitation.To ensure a smooth and flawless implementation of PMI activities and project results, 5 TPMs will be organised at key project milestones, as further described in the dedicated section.The 5 Multiplier Events will make sure that all the beneficiaries, stakeholders, and potential future users of the project results will be reached, therefore producing a greater impact and ensuring longer-term sustainability, even after the project funding ends.Dissemination activities will be organised and implemented by all the project consortium according to specific roles in the project, which will be further described in the Sharing, Promotion and Use of the Project's Results section.

"The need to include mental health among the priorities of the public health agenda has been increasingly recognized by the European Union since the launch of the Commission's Green Paper on Improving Mental Health in 2005. This recognition is based on the growing evidence and awareness about the magnitude of mental health problems in European countries: mental disorders are highly prevalent in Europe and impose a heavy toll on individuals, society and the economy, representing a significant share of the EU’s burden of disability (European Framework for Action on Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2016). Creative art therapy activities, can be immensely valuable for persons living with or recovering from mental health problems as it helps to express and interpret their experience, rebuild confidence and develop new skills. Art therapy practices often define their practice with orientations such as: psychodynamic; humanistic (phenomenological, gestalt, person-centred); psycho-educational (behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, developmental); systemic (family and group therapy); as well as integrative and eclectic approaches (Jones, 2005). Mental health services in Europe have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the services stopped working while others adapted their operation via the internet or by phone.A long-range of new tools to tackle mental health is therefore needed. And while art and creative expression has been a core fixture of European culture for millennia, the use of art as a tool for mental health has been scarcely mapped and experiences often not shared. A creative approach to mental health enables a new type of language on mental health to emerge. And given the nature of art, this language is universal across borders, professions, sectors, and segments - and can therefore connect both citizens, informal and formal carers, academians and clinicians alike. A successful partnership on how to educate people about the importance of art in mental health will offer insight based on the experience that the partners from five different countries bring to the project. The ""Art4Me"" consortium consists of organisations covering sectors related to mental health. Noteworthy associated partners such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the European Federation of Associations of families of people with Mental Illness (EUFAMI) will enhance the quality of the partnership and strengthen the cooperation and networking between the participating organisations. This project aims to share good practices in art therapy activities for adults with mental health problems. As the year of preparing the project is the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project partners, in adapting to the current situation, have realized that they could share virtual interventions in the use of art for adults living with a psychiatric disorder.The main mission of the ""Art4Me"" project is to promote mental health through art therapy to adults with mental health problems and highlight the importance of mental health promotion through art with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of millions of Europeans living with psychiatric disorders. We aim to exchange good practices in managing successful mental health awareness campaigns such as the use of art in mental health festivals. We will conduct a kick-off meeting in Copenhagen (April 2021), a training in Zagreb entitled ""Reducing stigma and discrimination of adults with mental illness and facilitating their social inclusion with the use of art"" (July 2022), a meeting in Lisbon (October 2022) and a final meeting at the office of the European Parliament in Athens (February 2023). If COVID-19 conditions don't allow the project meetings to take place physically they will be held virtually. During the project, we will examine the situation in each partner country (Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy and Portugal) concerning the use of art therapy and the use of art in mental health promotion. Our partner Safe Space Associação Saúde Mental from Portugal will organize two festivals on the occasion of world mental health day in October 2021 and October 2022. We will involve people with mental health problems from Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Greece during the physical or virtual focus groups.At the end of the project, we will present a ""Compendium of good practices in art therapy and in promoting mental health via art"" in English, uploaded on the website of the project."

The percentage of people aged >60 is predicted to rise from 12% of the current population to 22% between 2015 and 2050. Rising life expectancy is associated with increased prevalence of chronic diseases like dementia. There were an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2015 and this number will almost double every 20 years. These increases have a marked impact on states’ health care systems; and families and caregivers. According to studies, it is estimated that two caregivers are needed to take care of one person with dementia. AD poses real challenges for both the person diagnosed with AD and to those who assume care giving responsibilities. This does not mean that there will no longer be times of joy, shared laughter, and companionship. AD often develops gradually, offering time to adjust to the diagnosis, plan ahead, and spend quality time together. Dementia is not a specific disease. It's an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases. Dem@entoring used an inclusive educational and training approach, addressing health, wellbeing and promotion of ICT activities to people with dementia and their formal and informal caregivers in order to understand their disease and to efficiently cope with the dementia symptoms, raise awareness, improve understanding and decrease the fear of stigmatization. By implementing this training in different EU countries (GR, PL, DK, SE, IT), we had the chance to respond to the growing numbers of people with dementia by upskilling formal and informal caregivers who wish to gain a greater understanding of the disease.Objectives:The project created an online system with innovative integrated models allowing the target audience to interact and learn. The e-Mentoring addressed all involved target groups. Integrated with a pilot testing, dissemination events and actions, the project ended up with a learning activity (May 2021) to promote uptake of the models and system, thus, reach the needs addressing.Participants:People with dementia, formal and informal caregivers, NGOs, social enterprises, key stakeholders, health care professionals and educational providers were targeted by the Dem@entoring project and we estimated that during the project’s lifecycle, approximately 20,000 persons and organizations have been reached. This through a comprehensive strategy using diverse channels to reach all levels involved.Activities:Diverse activities were envisaged ranging from the initial needs analysis, the design and development of the e-mentoring model, the Dem@entoring platform and eMMentoring ecosystem and the underlining training approach (inclusive education, interactivity, decision based) while in parallel integrating higher level interaction and input. A key element is the dissemination strategy where the plan developed has dictated partner activities and actions. Three multiplier events, seminars, webinars and one learning activity have been organized as part of the effort to involve target group members, with specific channels and methods for their selection and promotion.Methodology:A clear project methodology with tasks, activities, time plan and milestones was designed allowing for: a. implementation of tasks according to plan and quality criteria, b. target group involvement and input, c. promotion and raising awareness, d. an underlying inclusive approach traceable to all activities, e. reporting and meetings to discuss, f. sustainability actions and transferability possibilities of results.Impact / Results:As long term impact, it is expected to: a. decrease social exclusion numbers among people with dementia in society, b. increase uptake of ICT activities and an improved healthier lifestyle, c. increased interactions with diverse groups within one’s environment thus, promoting equal opportunities, wellbeing, democratic value, proactive approach, active participation, d. practical examples to stakeholders and educational providers on applying EU policies and priorities, and many more. The main results, namely the Dem@entoring platform and eMentoring ecosystem and the mentoring model can further be transferred to other target audiences i.e. immigrant care givers, social workers etc. Achieving this ultimate vision requires leadership and commitment at many levels, from classrooms to political representatives. The goal and challenge of is to allow cross-sector cooperation and change that can have a significant and sustainable impact on national and EU priorities.