Climate change has resulted in an increase, frequency, and severity of heatwaves. The project HOPE (Responding to Heatwaves in the Older People Ecosystem) will put the severe health threats of heatwaves on the agenda of the older adult service and healthcare sectors with an inclusive approach for the whole ecosystem.
To achieve this goal six partners from the Netherlands: the City of Rotterdam and the University of Applied Sciences, Italy: Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani ISRAA, Portugal: Irmandade Da Santa Casa Da Misericordia Da Amadora Ipss, Greece: Social Cooperative Enterprise of Cyclades, France: Réseau européen pour l’ inclusion et l ‘action sociale locale, ELISAN have joined forces.
The aims will be achieved through the following actions:
- Developing and strengthening competences of students, informal caregivers, and professionals in older adult health, care and social sectors on better responding to the needs of older adults during heatwaves and thereby better mitigating the risks;
- Designing and implementing an innovative teaching-tool for students and formal/informal caregivers;
- Increasing skills contributing to better care for older people;
- Supporting and stimulating organisations in the older adults ecosystem to apply guidelines and best practices regarding care during heatwaves;
- Developing Guidelines for Ecosystems and a Database of Good Practices in collaboration with associated partners, older adults and caregivers,
- Increasing response capacity of older adults on how to mitigate the impact of heatwaves;
and managing their own health and wellbeing, Developing Policy Recommendation Supporting local and regional Authorities on how to play a role in the fight against heat risks for their older inhabitants and implementing in the municipalities connected to the project; - Exchanging best practices at Local, Regional, National, European and International level.
The results will be an integrated approach to be further adopted by other organisations and
authorities, decreasing the morbidity and mortality rate and improving the care provided through collaboration, new policies and approaches, knowledge exchange and change management.
