Category Archives: Partners

Cross-border Learning: Belgian and UK partners exchange experiences

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In early November, SIG‘s HAIRE team were delighted to welcome our Belgian partners Sofie Schepers and Katrien Serroyen who were visiting Cornwall from Laakdal. After a weekend of cultural and historical activities – taking in Guy Fawkes’ night and a tour of Falmouth’s Tudor castle, Pendennis – they spent a day exchanging experiences with Feock (one of our pilot sites) before travelling to East Sussex pilot sites and meeting our partners at Rother Voluntary Action and East Sussex County Council.

The East Sussex team were keen to give as broad a picture as possible of their locality and took our Belgian colleagues on a tour that took in the quaint beauty of Rye (cobbled streets and the fifteenth century Mermaid Inn), Tilling Green social housing estate, new housing in Winchelsea, and a relatively new community hub – The Hub on the Hill – which runs many classes and services for the community with an emphasis on older residents.

Katrien and Sofie are smiling, standing in front of Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, Cornwall

Katrien and Sofie at Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, Cornwall

The cultural exhange and sharing is important for Interreg2Seas funded projects. They promote cooperation between regions and countries to enhance economic and social development in our own countries and across borders. Our HAIRE 2Seas partners share the common challenge of supporting people to age well in rural areas, where loneliness and isolation and mobility problems are just some of the themes being tackled. Having had very few opportunities to meet due to restrictions brought about by the Covid pandemic, it was inspiring to share experiences and perspectives from nearly three years of HAIRE action and learning in our respective locations.

The HAIRE teams from East Sussex and Belgium are looking over a vista of housing and fields near Rye

Steve, Sue and Naomi from East Sussex taking the Belgians on a tour of their locality

At the initial meeting in Devoran, the village in Feock parish where the council offices are located, the difference between locations felt quite stark to our Belgian colleagues: Laakdal is a municipality with a population of around 16,000, whereas the population in Feock Parish numbers around 3,700. The larger East Sussex pilot sites felt more familar to the Belgian team. Yet one of the most difficult challenges for all locations has been reaching members of the community who may be in need, or may benefit from HAIRE’s activities, but who are almost “hidden.”

The extended HAIRE team pictured in the "warm space" at Feock parish council

The extended HAIRE team pictured in a community space at Feock parish council

However, as a result of the emphasis the HAIRE toolkit placed on listening to residents, the needs of the older population as a whole can be better taken into account. Now that HAIRE and its ethos of co-creation and listening is familiar to each department and area of responsibility, the views, opinions, needs and ideas of residents are being heard, and this has led to subtle changes in the system. Different methods to listen and co-create products and services have been introduced in all of our pilot sites to ensure their older residents are included in important decisions.

Feock now has an information and help line, originating out of the Covid pandemic, but which has become a staple of the parish. A legacy of HAIRE is that parish-based decisions take into account any impact on the older population in a way that they may not have been so obviously before. It is the same in Laakdal: the planning department, for example, is aware of the way its decisions impact the elderly – and they are now prepared to consult the HAIRE team for information about how they might best move forward with their works.

East Sussex partners have done an excellent job by instigating local and national design innovations after working with the RSA, the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce (“committed to a world that is resilient, rebalanced and regenerative, where everyone can fulfil their potential.”) Their Hastings and Rother Ageing Network meets monthly to network with local organisations, groups and individuals with a focus on how they can work together to make Rother and Hastings healthy and supportive places to grow older in.

From a longer term, strategic standpoint, Feock has made the decision to work with partners to develop a formal age-friendly community as our partners in East Sussex have done. The Guided Conversations in pilot sites illustrated the multiple dimensions of ageing well, which prompted the need for a holistic system response, and the UK arm of the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Communities programme is well aligned with the aims of the HAIRE project.

As Katrien and Sofie pointed out, the pilot site comparisons were useful, showing commonalities and differences and making them reflect on what went well in their own communities – and how “HAIRE thinking” could be built into longer term planning.

“Feock felt very isolated in comparison to Laakdal. The lack of public transport, the lack of shops, the very rural environment, the huge amount of second homes … I would think that building the community would be very difficult. Yet they succeed to organise meetings where 80 people attend and they make the most of small things (the red phone booths made into small libraries). Well done Feock! Rye felt more like Laakdal. What stood out was that both pilot sites are much more in contact with the church. In Belgium the church doesn’t organise much and in our pilot site the church isn’t involved. What was also different is the health part. I think that in the UK the health partners and health “input” is bigger than in Belgium. In Laakdal it’s more community building and well being than health. What I think both pilot sites did very well is thinking about life after HAIRE right from the beginning of the project. I believe that that will make it possible to continue and embed HAIRE better.”

The Belgian team are pictured with people from Feock and the University of Exeter - and the HAIRE mascot, a Corgi called Treacle

The Belgian team with Feock and the University of Exeter – and the HAIRE mascot, Treacle

East Sussex Conference: Innovations in Healthy Ageing

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View from the De Warr Pavilion

19th October 2022 saw our colleagues at Rother Voluntary Action and East Sussex County Council hold a Healthy Ageing social innovation workshop at the De Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea. The conference brought the community up to speed on what the team has achieved so far through HAIRE. It was a thought provoking day, with our partners not only sharing innovations devised so far, but also brainstorming with the community about new place-based innovations for healthy ageing.

Kate Leyshon stands with two colleagues from RVA

HAIRE’s PI Catherine Leyshon with colleagues from Rother Voluntary Action

Collaboration between VCSOs, public and private sector and older people continues to lie at the heart of much-needed changes to the design and delivery of services, and it was exciting to see so many people present who were clearly committed to improving the lives of older people. From the start, there was a lot of energy in the room, and there was a very high level of interaction and ideation throughout.

Four key themes emerged from the HAIRE project’s Guided Conversations and form the basis for innovations in Rye and Robertsbridge and beyond: Loneliness and Isolation; Transitions and Life changes; Planning for the Future and Staying Active.

A tweet describing the Life Transitions service briefly and calling for volunteers

The Life Transitions Service pilot was launched in summer 2022

One result (that crosses multiple themes, in fact) is the team piloting a “Life Transitions Service.” This has, at its heart, the simple truth that the further ahead you can plan, the better the outcome. The Guided Conversations showed that sometimes, the decisions people make when moving to rural areas are not always ideal, as they can fail to take their ageing needs and later life changes into account – and end up encountering loneliness, isolation and other difficulties.

The aim of the service is to help people arrive in later life as prepared as they could be, and to provide a listening ear and a signposting service to help individuals make important decisions that can help make a positive impact on later life. Volunteers have been recruited and trained in using the approach as an example of a new model of service focused on prevention. The volunteer model for the Life Transitions service is being rolled out next year, and the team are considering ways to extend the service beyond their local area.

Designers were asked: How might we create joyful place-based opportunities for people across generations to improve planetary health?

Another innovation scheme in progress is the RSA/HAIRE Design Competition. The RSA – the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce – is all about social impact, and the competition includes factors that go beyond personal, social and community issues. The partnership came up with a competition for design students to combine planetary health and ways to work intergenerationally to inspire healthier communities.

Winning designs will be tested in the summer of 2023, and included in the Age Friendly programme to ensure a long-lasting legacy. In parallel, there will be a community design competition, which was kicked off at the workshop: “How might we create fun opportunities in local communities for younger & older people to come together and improve each other’s health & the health of the planet?” All sorts of ideas were mooted: from Ready, Steady, Cook at the local food bank to a rickshaw club for greener, healthier, intergenerational transport.

Attendees all smiling as they write down their ideas for green healthy ageing initiatives

Kudos to product design student Jacob, who travelled down from Loughborough to hear all about HAIRE in order to better shape his design team’s submission.

Regarding strategic, system level innovation, East Sussex continues to develop a formal ‘age-friendly community’. The Guided Conversation analysis illustrated the multi-dimensional and interconnected dimensions of ageing well, which prompted the need for a holistic system response. The team (ESCC and RVA) worked with Rother District Council  – who are an official observer partner – to write an application to join the UK arm of the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Communities programme, as their approaches and domains of interest are well-aligned. The application was approved by the Rother District Council Cabinet and then by the Centre for Ageing Better, who run the UK AFC Network. The HAIRE Project collaborated with Rother District Council, local volunteers, and other stakeholders to develop the local AFC programme, holding a visioning workshop with key councillors and other local stakeholders to identify and agree priorities. These were presented and discussed at the conference, which finished on a futuristic note and a brainstorming session creating innovations 50 years into the future.

It was an inspiring day! 

Paul Bolton standing at the podium at the HAIRE conference

“It was great to bring aspects of the HAIRE partnership together and highlight the wider dimensions of the project. Our aim was to focus on the innovations to boost the momentum around Healthy Ageing going forwards and to set out the HAIRE legacy.” – Paul Bolton

 

Kate’s Grand Tour Part 3: Training in Adjacent Areas

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One of the objectives of our project is to extend the use of the HAIRE toolkit beyond the borders of our pilot areas. Kate’s visit to Laakdal (one of our pilot sites) included training new volunteers in the village of Bergom in the neighbouring municipality of Herselt. This region is a good example of how the toolkit can be customised to suit the community it is used in. Assisted dying is legal in Belgium, and the toolkit needed to include training volunteers in conversations about end of life. This is the third of four short blogs about Kate’s visit to Belgium in April, 2022.

On my second full day in Belgium, myself and the local project team (Katien, Sophie and Severine) train Jill Van der Auwera from the neighbouring municipality of Herselt, which comprises the villages of Herselt proper, Ramsel, Blauberg, Bergom and Varenwinkel. The sat nav takes me to an empty field about 5k from our meeting point. Thank goodness for Google Maps.  

We meet in a community hall in a small village surrounded by farmland and forests. This area feels more remote than Vorst, with more small, scattered settlements. The team in Laakdal – including the volunteers – will help to train professionals and volunteers in Herselt in the next few weeks. The issues that face their older community – especially the rising cost of living – are very familiar. We incorporate the insights from Laakdal’s volunteers into the session, which really helps with the practical aspects of applying the HAIRE toolkit elsewhere. After our session, we walk through the quiet, neat village to the magnificent Catholic Church with its lofty, modern interior and high, vaulted wooden ceiling.  In the evening, I drive to Bergom to attend the training of volunteers in conversations about end of life. This is a particular focus for Herselt and an issue for which they have adapted their Guided Conversations. Although the training is in Flemish, I keep up with the slides by putting a few key phrases from each into Google Translate. The training covers why and how we should talk about and prepare for the end of life along with useful case studies. Assisted dying is legal in Belgium, so some of the training is about that. A new model of palliative care is presented which introduces elements of palliative care alongside continuing treatment in a more gradual way. This breaks down the cure/care dualism in which only when the search for a cure ends does palliative care begins. Instead, this model seeks to open up the conversation about the journey towards the end of life more gradually and in a supportive and empathic way. It is a moving and very productive session.

 

Talking Deck to help people with life and health issues

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The Talking Deck is a new resource that has been co-designed by researchers from the University of Exeter, staff and volunteers at CoLab Exeter’s wellbeing hub, people with lived experience of homelessness, and artist Hugh McCann. The project is aligned with Project HAIRE and is based on the Guided Conversation model, showing how the HAIRE toolkit can be customised for different target groups.

The Talking Deck aims to facilitate conversations that are led and shaped by individuals seeking support. Sometimes the purpose of a conversation is simply to allow individuals to share their experiences with staff and volunteers at CoLab Exeter. As seen below, the cards in the deck include a collection of symbols, words and place-based images. They are carefully curated to help people speak about the issues that are important to them.

A variety of Talking Deck cards are in the photo, e.g. a key, a heart, trainers, animals, pictures of Exeter and words such as 'yesterday', 'future' and 'fear'.

Over a series of workshops, staff, volunteers, researchers and people with lived experiences came together to co-design the Talking Deck pack.

“Listening and co-production has been at the heart of this project. We’ve created these together with people from all sectors and walks of life. The cards are a way to facilitate conversations and help people find a way forward without getting to crisis point. People want to be listened to, first and foremost. To be seen and be validated.”  — CoLab Joint CEO Fiona Carden

The project was a partnership between researchers from the University of Exeter (Catherine Leyshon and Shukru Esmene from the Social Innovation Group‘s HAIRE team and Lorraine Hansford from the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health), CoLab Exeter and Devon Mind, funded through HAIRE and an ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) award. The IAA helped to translate the main principle of HAIRE’s Guided Conversation tool into a resource that suited CoLab Exeter’s working culture and the individuals who use their wellbeing hub. The principle here being the use of meaningfully co-designed visuals to facilitate wellbeing-related conversations.

“Seeing the Guided Conversation transform into the Talking Deck has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding process. Transferring our tools into new settings to help different groups and organisations always depends on successful co-design. We have worked alongside staff from CoLab and people with lived experience to produce something that can genuinely help people to have more in-depth, productive conversations about their needs, aspirations, hopes and fears.” — University of Exeter researcher Professor Catherine Leyshon

CoLab Exeter’s wellbeing hub hosts around 30 voluntary sector and statutory organisations who support people in Exeter with experiences of homelessness, addiction, the criminal justice system, the care system and domestic abuse. Over a series of workshops, staff, volunteers, researchers and people with lived experiences came together to co-design the Talking Deck pack. The packs are currently being trialled by staff and volunteers at CoLab and in other organisations, for example Julian House have experimented with using the Talking Deck in key worker support sessions with young adults in supported accommodation. So far, feedback from users of the Talking Deck has focused on how the cards help facilitate conversations that are led by the individual, rather than the staff member.

“It’s been really exciting to hear people’s reactions to the new cards. Support workers who have tried them out reported back that they were surprised how well such a simple tool opened up conversations, and helped people to talk about things that were important to them that they hadn’t raised before.” — University of Exeter researcher Lorraine Hansford

Workers commented that using the cards had given them more insight into people’s interests and concerns, and ‘opened different doors’ for people to talk about what is important to them, with issues sometimes emerging that would not necessarily come up in standard assessments used by the organisations:

“I was sceptical at first… I was quite surprised at how it was more powerful than I thought.”

“It’s another way of communicating with people, pictures have a connection to memories. For people who are vulnerable, talking can be intimidating, and it can bypass that in a gentle way.”

There is still work to be done, as the project does not intend to be prescriptive about how the resource is used. Ways of using the cards need to consider how some individuals may find engaging with the entire Talking Deck overwhelming and/or feel unsure about where to start. Continued exchanges between organisations that use the cards will be valuable in promoting the flexibility of the resource and in sharing new practices. Importantly, a Mental Health Alliance, including CoLab Exeter and Devon Mind, can potentially provide a platform for practice-led exchanges and skills sharing to take place. The Talking Deck’s launch will engage members of the Mental Health Alliance in scoping the coordination of such a platform.

Overall, the Talking Deck can be used informally in different settings to help guide conversations. The cards predominantly intend to give people choice about the topics that they wish to discuss, whilst helping to start conversations that may be difficult for people to raise.

After collating a last round of feedback, the finalised Talking Deck was launched at an event at CoLab Exeter on 3rd May 2022.

For more information, contact: Professor Catherine Leyshon (c.brace@exeter.ac.uk) or Lorraine Hansford ().

Picture of collaborators from MIND, CoLab and the University of Exeter

Left to Right: Tom Cox (Devon MIND), Fiona Carden (CoLab), Lorraine Hansford and Catherine Leyshon (University of Exeter)

 

 

Kate’s Grand Tour, Part 2 of 4: Arriving in Laakdal, Belgium

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Professor Catherine (Kate) Leyshon, our Principal Investigator, was able to travel for the first time since our project launch in early 2020. She referred to her trip as the “Grand Tour”! We asked her to write about her journey to East Sussex and subsequent visit to Laakdal in Belgium, and give us a writerly flavour of what those places look and feel like, since we’ve been unable to visit. Here’s part two: her first glimpse of Laakdal. More to follow!

I arrive on the Eurostar in Brussels and pick up a hire car for the drive to Diest, the town where I am staying about 25 minutes away from the municipality of Laakdal, in the province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Eindhout, Veerle, Vorst, Varendonk and Vorst-Meerlaar, all of which are involved with HAIRE. Diest is a pretty, well-kept town with narrow cobbled streets and new buildings tastefully blended into its historic town-centre. I take a walk up through a leafy park and back through the town square, lined with canopied restaurants where diners are enjoying the warm spring evening.

The next day, I drive to Vorst in Laakdal. Initially my car’s sat nav wants to take me to Vorst near Brussels but I realise this is in completely the wrong direction! I drive out of Diest and I’m quickly into the flat, farmed landscape of this part of Belgium. The road is straight and quiet. As I reach Vorst, I notice how quiet and tidy it is. We are meeting in the fantastic Gemeentehuis. Recently constructed and serving the whole municipality, it contains the library, a post office, meeting rooms, the only bank machine in town and some local council functions.

I meet four volunteers who have some fascinating insights into their experience of using the HAIRE toolkit. They are very generous with their knowledge, and – with a retired Alderman amongst their number – we have an in-depth discussion about new models of service design and delivery. The issues in this part of rural Belgium are familiar across the project: people growing older sometimes become less confident and stop going out as much. They become isolated and suffer some consequences to their overall wellbeing. The Guided Conversation has helped to reconnect them to the community. The partners are especially looking forward to taking ownership of a new minibus; transport here is very limited – it’s no surprise that getting around is a problem in all our pilot sites.

Kate’s Grand Tour Part One: A Visit to Rother

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Professor Catherine Leyshon, our Principal Investigator, was able to travel for the first time since our project launch in early 2020. She referred to her trip as the “Grand Tour”! We asked her to write about her journey to East Sussex and subsequent visit to Laakdal in Belgium, and give us a writerly flavour of what those places look and feel like, since we’ve been unable to visit. Here’s part one, starting in Rye, East Sussex. More posts to follow!

I arrive at Rye station in afternoon spring sunshine opposite Jempsons, which looks to be a well-stocked grocery store/deli with attractive displays. It’s a short walk to the Ship Inn through the historic redbrick town centre. It’s rush-hour in Rye, with children eagerly getting on the train home from school. The offices of the Bluebird care agency remind me that Rye has an aging population, many of whom suffer from isolation and loneliness. This is why Rye is part of HAIRE, along with the nearby town of Robertsbridge, both in the county of East Sussex.

I turn off the delightfully named Wish Street onto Wish Ward in the direction of a disused factory, a piece of industrial heritage referencing the area’s past. A former bakery, it now houses a pottery. I walk past picturesque redbrick and half shingle houses. The pretty townhouse along a cobbled street with a new Jaguar parked outside tells a story that I’m only too familiar with from Cornwall where the picturesque rural setting can hide great disparities in wealth. Mermaid Street, with its ancient, rounded cobbles, opens up to my left. The Ship Inn – my destination after 7 hours traveling from Cornwall, sits in an attractive riverside location. After dumping my bags, I go for a run along a levee between the river and a nature reserve. It’s a lovely part of the world – startlingly flat compared to Cornwall.

The next day, I meet four volunteers from HAIRE and the team from East Sussex County Council, Rother Voluntary Action, and Lorna Ford, the new Deptuty CEO from Rother District Council. We all feel thrilled to be able to meet up after two years on Teams. In that time, 16 volunteers have been recruited and trained, 76 Guided Conversations have been held and more than 200 hours of information about health and wellbeing have been used in the research analysis. Key themes prioritised through the innovation process are loneliness, accessing information, life transitions, and staying active.

We have a great meeting, discussing the volunteer experience of using the HAIRE toolkit – especially the Guided Conversation – and the legacy of HAIRE which will be felt through the pilot projects in Age Friendly Rother, now officially a part of the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Community programme.

The eight domains of Age Friendly Communities are illustrated. They are: Communication and Information, Community and Healthcare, Transportation, Housing, Civic Participation and Employment, Outdoor Spaces and Buildings, and Respect and Social Inclusion. 

Above: the eight domains are Communication and Information, Community and Healthcare, Transportation, Housing, Civic Participation and Employment, Outdoor Spaces and Buildings, and Respect and Social Inclusion. 

 

 

A systematic review on the impact of social networks on loneliness among older people in rural areas

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As part of the HAIRE project, the University of Plymouth is undertaking a systematic review on the impact of social networks on loneliness among older people living in rural areas. In this month’s blog, Basharat Hussain and Mahrukh Mirza, from the University of Plymouth, explain the process and findings to date.

Healthcare related decisions are critical and therefore need to be based on high quality scientific evidence. The scientific evidence on a topic is generated through individual studies. However, evidence from a single study may not offer confidence to policy makers and practitioners to change an existing practice or adopt a new intervention. This requires an acceptable method to pool all the relevant evidence on a topic and to make the information accessible to busy policy makers and practitioners.

Systematic review is a well-recognised method of identifying, evaluating and summarising evidence from all relevant individual studies, thereby making the available evidence readily accessible to decisionmakers. In a systematic review, all studies published on a topic (in our case, healthy ageing) are searched through online bibliographic databases (e.g., MEDLINE). The online searching of databases is undertaken using a comprehensive, reproducible, and predefined search strategy. This search can result in few hundreds to thousands of studies published on the topic globally or a geographical region of interest (e.g., Europe). The searched studies are screened using strict and narrow inclusion and exclusion criteria. These criteria can consist of research participants (e.g., age over 60 years), setting (e.g., rural areas) and phenomenon of interest (e.g., impact of social network on loneliness). All studies meeting the inclusion criteria are thoroughly read, quality assessed, and their findings synthesised. The final product is a summary of findings on a topic of interest and identification of any gaps for further research in that area.

Image Source: https://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/systematic-reviews

The review started in January 2022 and will be completed by April 2022. A comprehensive search strategy has been developed to search five main healthcare related databases on the topic. The search has identified over 38,000 published studies on the topic globally, starting from 1954 to January 2022. Screening of the published studies is underway. An interesting finding struck during the screening process is an acute lack of research on social networks and loneliness among older people in rural areas of Europe.

The findings from this review will be helpful not only for the HAIRE project, but also for policy makers, practitioners and researchers who have an interest in the topic. If you are interested in knowing more about this systematic review or would like to have copy once the findings are published, please get in touch with Dr Basharat Hussain, Research Fellow in Health Innovation, University of Plymouth (Basharat.hussain@plymouth.ac.uk), OR Dr Mahrukh Mirza, Lecturer in Clinical Education, University of Plymouth (Mahrukh.mirza@plymouth.ac.uk).

Crossborder Recipes: The HAIRE Christmas Party 2021

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Season’s Greetings! After nearly two years of working together throughout the Covid pandemic, the team has still not managed to meet up in person since the project launch in early 2020. At the end of 2021, plans for our first face to face gathering were once again thwarted by the emergence of Omicron, but we are still finding ways to connect with each other on a personal level despite everything. To celebrate the season, the HAIRE team got together virtually to share their favourite family recipes from each of our four countries: the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Such was the response we decided to make our own HAIRE recipe book, featuring tasty dips and snacks, desserts and treats from across the 2Seas region. Below are a few highlights …bon appetit!

Kaat’s Appelbol (The Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAIRE is about “a good old age”: project progress in Laakdal

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Thanks to our colleagues in Laakdal for sending us a news article which was published after a large stakeholder event discussing the co-creation and prioritisation of local social innovations. Below is a translation into English of the article by Annelies Frederickx published on Wednesday 20th October, 2021. You can read the original article at source here.

The seniors of Laakdal debate four themes: mobility, leisure, caring for tomorrow and communication — © AF

Laakdal is the first municipality to undertake the European participation project HAIRE.

HAIRE’s pilot site in Laakdal involves a partnership between the local government and Welzijnszorg Kempen, an organisation specialising in the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable in society, including older people. In Laakdal, 28% of the population is senior, so the municipality is ideally suited to explore the possibilities of co-creation with older people. There is also interest from adjacent areas, Mol and Herselt, in working with HAIRE.

Katrien Serroyen of Welzijnszone Kempen takes an active part in the debate. — © AF

The first part of the started in September 2020 with a neighbourhood analysis (a mapping of resources with residents in the neighbourhood; see this earlier blog post for an overview of what this entailed in Feock, UK, one of our other pilot sites.) Volunteers were then recruited to carry out “Guided Conversations.” Sixteen volunteers set out from the community to interview 71 older people. The respondents were 60, 70, 80 and 90 years old and they lived all over Laakdal. The Guided Conversations contain place- and person-related questions, as well as a section on personal empowerment. The results yielded a long list of more than a hundred action points. In consultation with the municipal council, the project team has filtered four priorities from this: mobility, leisure, care for tomorrow (dementia and early care planning) and communication. The older people surveyed all expressed the wish to rename the HAIRE project ‘A good old age in Laakdal’, as the English acronym did not resonate as strongly.

Sofie Schepers is an expert community-oriented care provider in Laakdal. — © AF

During the kick-off in the local meeting centre, some thirty people over sixty set to work on the four priority themes. In each domain, they identified the most important difficulties and looked for possible solutions. Rosa Wilms took an active part in the debate as she has been involved from the start: “When I read the call in the municipal information sheet, I immediately applied to be a volunteer”, Rosa Wilms reveals. “I was alone and this seemed to be an ideal pastime for me. I like to chat and through the project I was also able to make new contacts. I had a total of ten conversations, four online and six at home. They were all intense but wonderful conversations.”

Rosa Wilms has been involved in every phase of the project. — © AF

“My chats showed that older people in Laakdal struggle with a lack of respect from neighbours, young people and from traffic”, Rosa Wilms adds. “Of course there’s not much a municipal council can do about that; we all have to work on that together. I completely agree with the four chosen themes. Choices must of course be made and it seems realistic to me that the municipal council can achieve things in those four domains. The most important thing for me, however, is that we are being listened to.”

Difficult points to resolve or improve were noted for each theme. — © AF

Sofie Schepers, who leads the project for the municipal government, had good news for the participants. “The municipality is buying a van and it will be available to all older people in Laakdal. It can be used to provide transport to activities in all boroughs and we are also looking at the possibility of, for example, providing transport to the local market. The aim to provide ‘A good old age in Laakdal’ has only just started, but we are well on our way.”

CREATE Juin 2021 – Réflexion (French translation)

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Our French intern, Valentine, has again translated this month’s blog for us into French.  It is a research reflection by Shuks Esmene, our postdoctoral research fellow. To read the original English language version, click here.

A l’occasion des ateliers CREATE, les partenaires du projet HAIRE se sont rassemblés pour discuter de leurs premières idées d’innovations destinées à améliorer le bien-être des séniors dans les sites pilotes. Les outils de recherche utilisés dans le cadre du projet représentent un aspect essentiel de l’apprentissage HAIRE. En particulier, les expériences et les idées de tous les partenaires, y compris des bénévoles et des participants, sont aussi importantes que ces outils le sont pour identifier des actions axées sur la personne et adaptées au milieu qui soient pertinentes à échelle locale.

Notre atelier de poésie a montré que les partenaires de prestation et les équipes de recherche du projet HAIRE sont parvenus à élaborer un environnement favorable à la discussion – même en ces temps troublés ! Les souvenirs de ces personnes âgées avec qui nous avons des liens privilégiés, par exemple des parents, des grands-parents, d’autres membres de la famille et des amis, ont inspiré une séance riche en émotions. Un de nos partenaires a fait remarquer :

« Ce ne sont pas des larmes de tristesse ! »

La remarque ci-dessus concernait un grand-parent défunt et résume la façon dont nos liens avec les personnes qui comptent pour nous s’étendent au-delà de leur présence physique auprès de nous. Bien qu’elles ne fussent qu’une parenthèse parmi les autres activités du projet, les réflexions que nous tirons de telles expériences peuvent aider HAIRE à amorcer des conversations relatives à l’intégration des soins dans nos communautés. Des soins plus approfondis. Des soins qui surpassent les besoins fonctionnels des individus. Ces besoins sont extrêmement importants, bien sûr. Cependant, le bien-être ne se limite pas à la somme des besoins fonctionnels d’un individu.

Les Conversations Guidées du projet HAIRE ont révélé que les activités et les passions qui importent aux participants (marcher, tricoter, lire et se rendre à des marchés locaux, entre autres) leur ont apporté de la joie et, malheureusement, de la tristesse lorsqu’ils n’ont pu s’y adonner pendant la pandémie. Ces conclusions ne sont en aucune façon propres au projet HAIRE, mais elles lui offrent plusieurs possibilités. Le réseau HAIRE, constitué de personnes soudées et attentionnées, va nous permettre de réfléchir différemment à notre façon de procéder face à ces conclusions. Certes, il est important de faire une liste des activités et des passions présentes dans une région, et de s’assurer que ces activités sont proposées à ses habitants, mais il faudrait aussi offrir l’opportunité aux séniors de développer de nouveaux centres d’intérêts et de nouvelles passions – ce serait une façon d’ajouter de la capacité à un lieu donné. La variété des activités et les activités extracurriculaires sont considérées comme une partie fondamentale du développement de l’enfant (1).

Je pense souvent à cette façon que nous avons d’essayer de trouver et de doser un assortiment d’activités spécifiques dont la population adulte puisse bénéficier – plutôt que de nous appliquer à mieux comprendre les modalités du bien-être de chaque individu. Comme nous l’avons dit durant nos discussions sur l’innovation au deuxième jour des ateliers CREATE, cela peut faire la différence d’« être prêt à commencer modestement » afin de produire des innovations qui restent ouvertes aux contributions des habitants – particulièrement si les opinions et points de vue reçoivent une réponse et ne sont pas perdus au fil des démarches administratives. A ce titre, les solutions numériques contribuent largement à améliorer la sensibilisation, mais c’était aussi encourageant de voir des idées se développer lors des ateliers autour des activités en face à face et de la notion d’« aller vers les gens ».

Dans leurs réponses aux Conversations Guidées, les participants ont communiqué l’importance qu’ils attachent aux interactions en face à face et aux évènements de rassemblement convivial. De plus, même si nous l’avons appris par le biais d’anecdotes, nous ne pouvons oublier que les commerçants et les docteurs étaient bien plus profondément intégrés dans les quartiers ruraux par le passé. Les services avaient plus souvent lieu en face à face, et ces expériences doivent être prises en compte lorsque l’on réunit des personnes âgées.

Par ailleurs, des préoccupations primordiales vis-à-vis du profil des participants recrutés jusqu’ici ont été soulevées lors des ateliers CREATE. On considère souvent qu’une méthode de communication qui attire et inclus les groupes vulnérables et marginalisés représente un défi (2). Les communautés inclusives doivent s’assurer que tout le monde sent qu’il ou elle fait partie du lieu dans lequel il ou elle vit, et que l’opportunité d’exprimer ses opinions leur soit donnée de façon à ce que tout le monde puisse contribuer à façonner l’avenir du lieu en question. Parvenir à une compréhension plus inclusive du bien-être représentera un défi important pour le projet HAIRE, et la démarche consistant à « être prêt à commencer modestement » pourra nous être bénéfique dans cette mesure également. La recherche a parfois tendance à se focaliser sur des chiffres et des objectifs à accomplir, tous les deux générés par des groupes larges et soi-disant représentatifs. Toutefois, si nous nous posons des questions essentielles sur les points de vue variés que nous avons recueillis pendant les Conversations Guidées, nous pouvons commencer modestement. Des questions telles que : comment se fait-il que quelqu’un qui s’est occupé des autres, et qui a travaillé dur dans un secteur qui n’est pas généreux économiquement, peut se retrouver dans une position financière précaire plus tard dans sa vie ?, et, que pouvons-nous faire pour impliquer quelqu’un à échelle locale quand cette personne n’a pas pu développer et/ou approfondir des centres d’intérêt à cause d’une enfance ou d’un début de vie d’adulte mouvementés ?

Enfin, la question qui selon moi ressort le plus de nos séances CREATE est :

« Pourquoi sommes-nous, en tant que société, si mauvais à cela ? »

La réponse se trouve peut-être dans une nouvelle conception des soins, une conception selon laquelle les soins seraient reçus et donnés par des individus dans leurs communautés, et ne seraient pas simplement un service dédié à répondre aux besoins fonctionnels des personnes âgées. Fait encourageant, nous avons parfois accompli cela au sein de projet HAIRE – que ce soit entre les chercheurs et les équipes de prestation, entre les équipes de prestation et les bénévoles, et/ou entre les bénévoles et les participants. Notre prochain défi sera de trouver des façons d’impliquer les donneurs de soins dans le projet, sur tous les sites pilotes, plus étroitement encore. J’ai hâte d’affronter ce défi.

Footnotes

1. Metsäpelto, R., & Pulkkinen, L. (2012). Socioemotional Behavior and School Achievement in Relation to Extracurricular Activity Participation in Middle Childhood. Scandinavian Journal Of Educational Research, 56(2), 167-182. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2011.581681

2. Meyer, C., Evans, D., Soucat, A., Dkhimi, F., Akweongo, P., & Kessy, F. et al. (2018). Leaving no one behind? Reaching the informal sector, poor people and marginalised groups with Social Health Protection. Journal Of Poverty And Social Justice. doi: 10.1332/175982718x1536143686739