As societies age, the development of resources and strategies that foster healthy ageing from the beginning of life become increasingly important. Social and healthcare professionals are key agents in this process; therefore, their training needs to be in agreement with societal needs. We performed a scoping review on professional competences for social and health workers to adequately promote healthy ageing throughout life, using the framework described by Arksey and O’Malley and the Joanna Briggs Institute Guidelines. A stakeholder consultation was held in each of the participating countries, in which 79 experts took part. Results show that current literature has been excessively focused on the older age and that more attention on how to work with younger population groups is needed. Likewise, not all disciplines have equally reflected on their role before this challenge and interprofessional approaches, despite showing promise, have not been sufficiently described. Based on our results, health and social professionals working to promote healthy ageing across the lifespan will need sound competences regarding person-centred communication, professional communication, technology applications, physiological and pathophysiological aspects of ageing, social and environmental aspects, cultural diversity, programs and policies, ethics, general and basic skills, context and self-management-related skills, health promotion and disease prevention skills, educational and research skills, leadership skills, technological skills and clinical reasoning. Further research should contribute to establishing which competences are more relevant to each discipline and at what level they should be taught, as well as how they can be best implemented to effectively transform health and social care systems.
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Wat is healthy ageing? In dit hoofdstuk bespreken de auteurs een aantal definities en gaan ze in op de 'Big Five for a Healthy Life". Ook wordt gezond ouder worden in het kader van de levensloopbenadering geplaatst, waarbij het leven van mensen beschouwd wordt als een aaneenschakeling van levensfasen en levensgebeurtenissen. Elke gebeurtenis of situatie kan in de context van de levensfase betekenis krijgen. Centraal in deze benadering staat dat elke fase gepaard gaat met uitdagingen en dat in elke fase veranderingen en aanpassingen nodig zijn om gezond oud(er) te worden.
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Gezond ouder worden, hoe doen mensen dat? Bij Healthy ageing staat het gedrag dat bijdraagt aan een zo gezond mogelijk leven centraal. Het gaat hierbij vooral om het bevorderen van zelfredzaamheid en versterken van gezond gedrag.Bij professionals is er een groeiende behoefte aan inzichten over gezond ouder worden en aan interventies die dat ondersteunen. Healthy ageing gaat over de vraag hoe gezondheidsprofessionals gedrag kunnen bevorderen dat bijdraagt aan gezond ouder worden. Een belangrijk uitgangspunt is dat wat mensen nodig hebben om gezond te blijven of te worden, verandert gedurende de levensloop. Het boek bestaat uit twee delen. Het eerste deel gaat in op de inhoud en achtergronden van healthy ageing gedurende de levensloop. Er worden modellen en theorieën besproken die professionals kunnen inzetten bij de ondersteuning van gedragsverandering. Daarnaast is er aandacht voor e-health, interdisciplinair samenwerken en ethisch handelen. Het tweede deel behandelt de invloed van voeding, bewegen, slaap, stress en sociale interactie op gezond ouder worden. De nadruk ligt hierbij op de mogelijkheden om in de praktijk ondersteuning te bieden.Dit boek is geschreven voor studenten van hogere sociale studies en zorg- en (para)medische opleidingen. Het is ook geschikt voor professionals die zich bezighouden met gedragsveranderingen rond gezondheidsvraagstukken. Carina Wiekens geeft leiding aan de onderzoeksgroep Duurzaam Gedrag en is lector bij de Hanzehogeschool. Jan Jukema is lector Verpleegkunde bij hogeschool Saxion. Onder redactie van genoemde auteurs hebben vele experts van verschillende hogescholen een bijdrage geleverd aan het boek.
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By 2050, 70% of the population will live in cities. The majority of the persons living in cities will be 60 plus years old. Ageing cities demands for cities environments to adapt to an ageing population. Modern cities though, don’t anticipate fast enough and in an adequate manner to face the challenges due to population-related transitions. Modifying and adapting the built environment with a focus on the aged population could help to support older people facing functional and cognitive decline.
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This chapter gives an overview on the Healthy Ageing research portfolio of the research group Lifelong Learning in Music (Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, the Netherlands). Lifelong learning enables musicians to respond to the continuously changing context in which they are working nowadays, and ageing is one of the major societal changes for many western societies in the 21st century. Musicians are asked by society to contribute to healthy ageing processes, and such a contribution in turn generates possibilities for innovative musical practices with the elderly. We present a three-layered model to look at such innovative practices, which places the musical practice itself in the context of communicative characteristics of working with elderly people and in broader societal and institutional contexts. We then outline four concrete research projects: learning to play an instrument at an elderly age, creative music workshops for elderly in residential home settings, the competencies of creative music workshop leaders working with frail elderly people, and musical work with severely ill elderly people in hospitals. We describe some background values and methodological notions behind our work, and finish the article with a more extensive description of our project on Music and Dementia.
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De AvB Groningen organiseert een vierjarig onderzoek- en ontwerpatelier rond de thema's energietransitie en healthy ageing. Het atelier wordt voorbereid en geevalueerd vanuit Kenniscentrum NoorderRuimte en het landelijke lectoraat Future Urban Regions. Dit document betreft de inhoudelijke voorbereiding van het atelier 2014-2015. Het is een vervolg op het verslag van de reflectiebijeenkomst met externe betrokkenen bij het atelier 2013-2014.
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Health is a multi-dimensional concept, capturing how people feel and function. The broad concept of Active and Healthy Ageing was proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the process of optimizing opportunities for health to enhance quality of life as people age. It applies to both individuals and population groups. A universal Active and Healthy Ageing definition is not available and it may differ depending on the purpose of the definition and/or the questions raised. While the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) has had a major impact, a definition of Active and Healthy Ageing is urgently needed. A meeting was organised in Montpellier, France, October 20-21, 2014 as the annual conference of the EIP on AHA Reference Site MACVIA-LR (Contre les Maladies Chroniques pour un Vieillissement Actif en Languedoc Roussillon) to propose an operational definition of Active and Healthy Ageing including tools that may be used for this. The current paper describes the rationale and the process by which the aims of the meeting will be reached. Health is a multi-dimensional concept, capturing how people feel and function. The broad concept of Active and Healthy Ageing was proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the process of optimizing opportunities for health to enhance quality of life as people age. It applies to both individuals and population groups. A universal Active and Healthy Ageing definition is not available and it may differ depending on the purpose of the definition and/or the questions raised. While the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) has had a major impact, a definition of Active and Healthy Ageing is urgently needed. A meeting was organised in Montpellier, France, October 20-21, 2014 as the annual conference of the EIP on AHA Reference Site MACVIA-LR (Contre les Maladies Chroniques pour un Vieillissement Actif en Languedoc Roussillon) to propose an operational definition of Active and Healthy Ageing including tools that may be used for this. The current paper describes the rationale and the process by which the aims of the meeting will be reached.
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Assistive Technology (AT) is used at various points in the lifespan by those coping with either short-term or long-term impairments, which can involve living with chronic conditions and/or comorbidities. In the case of older adults, AT can support or compensate for the functional or cognitive declines that they are likely to face in later life. AT can be integrated as part of smart homes (see Figure 1 from van Dijken et al, 2006); and should be safe to use, effective, easy to access, affordable, and not seen as stigmatising. In addition, AT should support older adults to have a meaningful life while building self-esteem, and autonomy and promoting social participation and community engagement. For this roundtable discussion, we present and discuss a WHO-ISG collaborative project focused on Assistive Technology for Healthy Ageing. For this project, we consider applications and use AT not only from a medical standpoint but also situated within a social perspective in the context of Gerontechnology. Results and propositions according to the WHO-UNICEF global report on assistive technology were applied as a starting point for this project (WHO, 2022), prioritising the potential benefits to individuals, their communities, and society and with a focus on identifying potential barriers that may occur and how to mitigate them.
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Europeans are living longer than ever in history, because of the economic growth and advances in hygiene and health care. Today, average life expectancy is over 80, and by 2020 around 25% of the population will be over 65. The increasing group of older people poses great challenges in terms of creating suitable living environments and appropriate housing facilities. The physical indoor environment plays an important role in creating fitting, comfortable and healthy domestic spaces. Our senses are the primary interface with the built environment. With biological ageing, a number of sensory changes occur as a result of the intrinsic ageing process in sensory organs and their association with the nervous system. These changes can in turn change the way we perceive the environment around us. It is important to understand these changes when designing for older occupants, for instance, care homes, hospitals and private homes, as well as office spaces given the developments in the domain of staying active at work until older age.
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De bijdrage van de gezondheidsprofessional in het ondersteunen en bevorderen van healthy ageing heeft de meeste kans van slagen als het planmatig, evidence-based en persoons- en netwerkgericht uitgevoerd wordt. Er zijn verschillende theorieën en modellen die hierbij behulpzaam kunnen zijn. Het gebruik daarvan in de praktijk vraagt inzicht en ervaring en het vereist dat steeds zorgvuldige afwegingen worden gemaakt. In dit hoofdstuk wordt beschreven hoe gezondheidsprofessionals te werk kunnen gaan en welke theorieën en modellen ze kunnen gebruiken.
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