Project DARE enhances the reflection on a particular aspect of the European welfare: the services for home assistance.
This is the first of two Newsletters that will be sent in its context, aiming to disseminate the best practices and engage everyone in this discussion. We hope you enjoy it.
This number's table of contentes is as follows:
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Update
One of the main needs of the present Care and assistance services system is that of experiencing more efficient organizational models. Together with this structural innovation, it emerges the need to reshape the (professional) profiles and the competences (formal and informal) of the staff involved in the different phases of the care/assistance process:
- overcoming the traditional division of the social assistance services based on target groups – disabled adults, disabled minors, elders, etc., in order to get closer to a holistic approach of the home assistance
- introducing a service of continuous training/retraining program, in order to give the families the possibility to hire (di collaborate with) qualified professionals from the care/assistance sector, or volunteers who have those transversal competences that allow to perform more types of interventions and work with different categories of beneficiaries;
In order to envisage a really innovative welfare, homogenous in terms of quality and quantity, the families’ needs regarding “domiciliary assistance” have to be interpreted with a wider view, accompanying the aspects exclusively linked to the care for dependent people, to diversified types of “home interventions”.
Consequently, the project is based on the exchange of best practices regarding structured or half-structured models of “desks”/”services”/”centres” dedicated to the integrated home assistance, through 5 transnational meetings/visits by the contexts in which the seven project partners ac
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Objectives
The main objective of the project is the creation, through the partnership, of a significant community of practice, able to propose and to transfer, on a long term, innovative alternatives of domiciliary assistance systems, with a mixed management between public and private, able to overcome the traditional division of the welfare services based on target groups – disable adults, disable minors, elders, by observing, during the exchanges of best practices:
- the professional and relational competences of the staff involved in the centers/desks of integrated services
- the continuous training/retraining services in order to adapt the professional profiles and the competences (formal and informal) of the involved staff.
Through the continuous dissemination activities, another project objective is the sensitization of the local/national/European stakeholders regarding the need to re-think and re-plan the domiciliary assistance system with an integrated vision.
Duration of the project - 24 months (2nd of October 2017 – 1st of October 2019)
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The Exchange of Pratices
5 Visits for the Exchange of Good Practices (1 in each country of the partnership) – in order to observe structured and semi-structured models of “integrated services for domiciliary assistance”
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Romenia, Bucharest - 11th-12th of January 2018
On January 11, 2018, partners in France, Italy, Portugal and Belgium were received at DGASPC Sector 1 headquarters.
Authority local opened the visit then visited two residential centers for the elderly.
We discussed the planning activities (assigned roles, study visits, communication, dissemination and validation of the proposed tools), the dissemination plan, the project site, newsletters and two models of home carers of good practice at the Cross Foundation White and the Caraiman Multifunctional Center.
The project's information and dissemination activities involved managers / coordinators of local / national public institutions responsible for home care services, administrators and operational staff.
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1st BEST PRACTICE – NGO "Crucea Alb-Galbena" "White-Yellow Cross"
The White Yellow Cross Romania was created with the White Yellow Cross Flanders Foundation, 20 years ago.
The White Yellow Cross Romania Foundation (CAGR) is one of the pioneers that initiated home social care services in Romania, trying to meet the needs of a large group of elderly people alone, many of whom live in poverty.
There are currently 9 programs in which about 500 patients are taking care of, at home, monthly. A team of 10 nurses, 2 physicians, 4 physiotherapists, 4 social assistants, provides services at the highest standards to the sick and addicted elderlies.
The mission of the White-Yellow Cross Foundation in Romania is to offer all eligible people, high quality social-medical services, at home where they need, without costs, helping to improve their quality of life.
Home Care is a social-medical service for the most vulnerable groups in society. Home care services address primarily to elderly people with chronic illness and low incomes. The difficulty of obtaining a place in care institutions or accessing long-term care services and the absence of an informal network for providing these types of care has made many people unable to ensure a decent living and, consequently, to call CAGR. Home care is often considered an instrument against poverty and social fragmentation (PHC, 2003). Home care services are currently undergoing development and modernization because both from the increase in the number of users of these services and from the harmonization of the social and social-medical services sector with the European exigencies.
The White Yellow Cross Foundation team consists of doctors, general nurses, social workers, physical therapists, home caregivers, and administrative staff. All employees, with the exception of home caregivers, have specialty higher education; home caregivers have a home caregiver diploma. Each member of the intervention team is attending specialized courses each year. Nurses and kinetotherapists have their car to move to the patients' home.
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2nd BEST PRACTICE – Complexul Multifuntional Caraiman
The Counseling and Assistance Service for Elderly People was established within the General Direction of Social Assistance and Child Protection Sector 1, 14 years ago (December 2003). Since February 2008, the service has been functioning within the Caraiman Multifunctional Complex.
This service was, at the time of its establishment, a new system of social and medical care at home, being among the first social services of this kind set up under the subordination of a Social Welfare Directorate, the integrated package of services for the elderly people, aiming to prevent and limit some situations generating marginalization and social exclusion.
At present, the service consists of 3 social workers, 3 psychologists, 15 home care workers + service chief (social worker), and the services are given to 67 beneficiaries per month.
The aim is:
- reducing the number of institutionalized elderly people
- increasing the quality of life by offering integrated services of social-medical, medical and counseling care
- providing support to families, relatives and elderly people in crisis through the services provided by home caregivers.
The Focus Group organized immediately after this visit collected the main observation of the participants – at the visit, besides the Services Coordinator, a “family assistant” was invited and answered the partners’ questions. The coordinator Casandra Cristea gave a synthetic feedback:
Social assistants, psychologists and home caregivers are part of the multidisciplinary team.
The multidisciplinary team is complemented by medical staff from Caraiman Ambulance Service (doctors, nurses, kinetotherapists); if the situation requires they also provide home medical care services or transport to a specialized healthcare unit in order to perform a specialized consultation.
Over the past 10 years, SCAPV has provided home care through specialist caregivers to about 16,150 beneficiaries, with a growing number of requests being made. The number of beneficiaries is decreasing due to insufficient qualified human resources and non-fulfillment of the eligibility criteria (high income, maintenance dependents, alienated housing with a maintenance clause, a similar social assistance measure (personal assistant / indemnity corresponding to the reimbursement of a companion).
DGASPC Sector 1 Bucarest, a public institution responsible for all the social services for adults, children and families from Sector 1 (the most developed out of the 6 Sectors that Bucharest has), implements the provisions of the law, by interpreting and applying it to actual social assistance situations.
Elderly people end up in a situation where they can no longer perform their everyday activities, get into a state of addiction, marginalization, lose their autonomy and need the support of others.
A more sustained involvement of communities is needed, where complex, coherent measures must be found, including those on prevention
Through different programs, it is necessary to try to change the mentality of the majority population, that the elderly consume and that it does not have much to live anyway, which discriminates in access to medical and social services, with less attention being paid to maintaining the independence of the elderly to the detriment youth.
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Belgian, Brussels – 2018
Brussels City Hall welcomes 4 European Partner countries (France, Italy , Portugal and Romenia)
The partners were received in the Brussels City Hall by Mr. Alain Courtois - First Alderman and Alderman in Charge of Demography , Family and Seniors and Marie Arnould , the Director of Service d’Aide of Seniors Brussels and the coordinator of the project Casandra Cristea. They officially opened the visit by contextualizing the focus of the project whose purpose is to REvisit the Domiciliary Assistance through Integrated Services.
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Brussels, 9 projects – 9 visits
A network event and a set of projects carried out gave a great opportunity to discuss substantial issues with the aim to address challenges identified in Domiciliary Assistance Services, namely:
- Allo? Allo aims to bring together local self-help initiatives through a single telephone line for lost seniors facing the multitude of resources in their neighborhood. See more in www.allo-allo.be
- FamiDesk is a collaborative messaging system based on the paper communication notebook integrating both the human and technological environment. It brings together caregivers (caregivers, neighbors, friends, distant family ...), health professionals and personal services around and with the person being helped. It is accessible in a web browser from a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet and smartphone. FamiDesk is accessible via https://famidesk.com
- Family Care Neighbourhood - The objective of Care Services for Brussels Senior Citizens is to improve services for beneficiaries through exchanges and the coordination of family caregivers with the beneficiaries in their neighbourhood. In this respect, the neighbourhood project: 1) focus its work on and with the beneficiaries, per neighbourhood and per team; 2) promote the autonomy of its teams under the supervision of social workers; and 3) promote contacts in the neighbourhoods.
- Teleassistance - Télé-Secours is a social alarm system for people living alone at home. The beneficiary can contact our alarm centre round the clock, year round, by simply pressing a button. Our operator assesses the request and, depending on the situation, contacts friends or relatives of the beneficiary or the emergency services. In 80% of the cases, a person has fallen and could not be put back on his feet in less than 15 minutes by a friend or relative whom we alerted about the fall.
- Saint Gilles – Brussels Neighbourhood Assistance and Care Project ensued from a call for projects from the region concerning a determination to work per quarter on assistance and care for elderly persons. The aim is to coordinate assistance and care better per quarter.
- Brusafe + aims to connect different stakeholders in order to guarantee the continuity of care. Brusafe+ is following the IHE standards and reassuring that every connection is interoperable with others. The main objectives is to send and pull documents of the server and exchange it between different healthcare systems.
- BuurtPensioen connects people with little or no social network. They are alone and do not know who to turn to with their minor care-related questions. 1 out of 8 elderly people in Brussels are in this situation and we want to do something about it. With this project are trying to set up a supervised neighbourhood network where the talents of people will be deployed to help each other with minor day-to-day concerns. Little things makes a big difference. Linking demand and supply and strive for reciprocity in the network is the key to help people each other. The success of the network is determined by the degree of integration in the neighbourhood, due so the objective is the cooperation with other initiatives and a shared space for weekly surgeries. The time banking system lays the foundation for lasting solidarity.
- SENIOR FRIENDLY RESTAURANTS LABEL is standard label for restaurants that want to be a “ Friendly Restaurant “. Categories for the label are: reception, accessibility, Senior Friendly Menu, senior benefits and originality.
- Connect2BrusselsHealthNetwork Connect2BHN is about connexion of innovative solutions for patients and HCPs to the Electronic Health Record. Specialists, GPs, healthcare practitioners in general may have access to health and medical related information concerning one specific patient. Collaboration is managed by the users of the system. Depending on the project, family members/friends/... are included in the process. This means better care, no redundancy of care.
- Saint-Gilles – Brussels Neighbourhood Assistance and Care Project is based in a Consortium composed of 40 partners from social welfare, assistance and care institutions which have as main goal to turn the neighbourhood into a central player for the identification of and preventive action for vulnerable individuals so as to provide care for the person in due course so that he can continue to live in their home. It is based on the development of three lines of force: 1) Identify and reinforce the (formal and informal) resources of the neighbourhood and root the guidance and support therein; 2) Establish and/or develop places for information and meeting per neighbourhood (neighbourhood branches) for elderly persons, friend/relative caregivers, and professionals, and 3) Create a network of potential local participants for better mutual knowledge and the implementation of coordinated concrete actions.
The Service D’Aide aux Seniors Bruxellois has been using, developing and rolling out tailor-made tools for the identification of beneficiaries’ strengths and weaknesses and – in doing so - has been offering qualitative support measures adapted to their specific needs. The service has indeed allowed for the rolling application of a set of interventions at the heart of Brussels’ districts which help prevent routine approaches. Thanks to the contribution of its partners, the service builds on local networks of protagonists who provide care and support in each neighborhood, improving thereby the well-being of people remaining at home. This system entails a review of care and support structures as well as of the methods used to provide seniors with the service they need, taking into consideration that the ‘life territory’ of senior citizens is often located within 300-500 meters from his/her residence .
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Upcoming Visits
Corsica – Bastia: October 2018
Coimbra: 11-12 of April 2019
Padua/Asti/Bologna - September 2019
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