The empowerment of older adults to make informed decisions about their health and where and how they want to live is a frequently stated goal, but is difficult to achieve. Empowerment aims to increase healthy lifespan by providing tools (digital and non-digital) and create more opportunities for managing the health of older adults. Empowered senior citizens enjoy higher independence, a greater control over their own lives and due prominence in decision making in their communities and in the organisations they belong to. Reference Sites are in the driving seat of these innovations in their regions. They are awarded as recognition for their inspirational ecosystems and for developing, promoting and scaling-up creative and workable solutions that could improve the lives and health of elderly. Empowerment needs infrastructure, appliance and skills, however true empowerment also requires access to reliable and relevant health-related information as well as a connection to peers who are facing the same challenges.

Empowering older people is, without a doubt, beneficial at individual level. However, from an institutional and health and care system perspective, it is crucial. This is because chronic diseases, demographic change and unexpected pandemics put unprecedented and constant pressure on institutional health and care organisations. Innovation helps us to seek alternative care models and supporting tools that allow the discharge of the institutional health and care from long-term and non-urgent care needs. In reality, innovations (digital or non-digital) that are designed to serve older adults are often limited by regulations and resources (financial, human…).

The workshop will seek answers to the following questions: How can we remove these barriers and enable solutions, models, strategies… to empower older persons? What role do Reference Sites play in this process? How can they help each other to overcome difficulties territories face on the ground?

The inspiring practices in empowering of senior citizens in various cultural environments are coming from Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Greece and Slovenia, altogether from 7 Reference Sites of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIPonAHA). The regional showcases will be complemented with an overview of the activities of the Active Assisted Living Programme (AAL). The event is supported by ERRIN.

More information and registration can be found here.