There is an increasing focus on promoting person-centred systems across continuing care settings, emphasizing the need to enhance the quality of life of older adults. Life story books (LSB) can provide a holistic view of older adults, promote relationship-centred care and enhance person-centred care. The process of developing LSB involve collecting and recording aspects of a person’s life both past and present.

European policies such as the Social Investment Package for Cohesion and Growth (SIP), the Employment Package for a Job-rich Recovery and the Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIPAHA), are driving the policy agenda for the coming years in the field of long-term care. Their strategy is focused on:

They offer a variety of services that provide vulnerable older people an active and positive support system. I learnt a lot from this course, and am definitely taking some best practice learning back with me for our programmes in Moldova.

Read more about our projects with older people in Moldova.

The generations are no longer as they seemed to be in the past. Changes come quickly and the knowledge and experience that parents pass onto their children is often not enough to help them solve problems in the future, said Milan Zelený, professor at Fordham University in New York, in an interview with The Slovak Spectator.

He talks about how these rapid changes impact the generations and what needs to be done to tackle these problems.

Elderly inhabitants’ memories can be a valuable source of information about the intangible aspects of cultural heritage. Using the social psychological theoretical approach of social representations, this research project focused on the former 17th Municipality of Rome (located on the right riverbank of the Tiber River and including the neighbourhoods of Prati and Borgo close to the Vatican City). All three older people’s centres of the municipality have participated on a voluntary basis.

• Our programs. Senior Care Network programs include the care coordination program and our50 Health Connection membership program.

The perception of giving care – often talked about as a burden – needs to change. Preparing for how to support people to live a good life means fundamentally rethinking how we care. There is a need to provide more help early on; emotional and practical support can aid people in living independently and well for longer.

The impending growth of the elderly population requires both fiscal and substantive changes in Medicare and Medicaid that are responsive to cost issues and to changing patterns of need. More emphasis is required on chronic disease management, on meaningful integration between acute and long-term case services, and on improved coordination between Medicare and Medicaid initiatives.

The elderly population is defined as people aged 65 and over. The share of the dependent population is calculated as total elderly and youth population expressed as a ratio of the total population. The elderly dependency rate is defined as the ratio between the elderly population and the working age (15-64 years) population.