Brussels, 08/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Five priority initiatives to promote active and healthy ageing, which, it is hoped, will ensure that the average European citizen has two more active and healthy years to live by 2020, were adopted by the Steering Group of the pilot European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, a European Commission press release announced on Monday 7 November.
The announcement coincided with the Territories, laboratories of Social Europe conference organised by the European Local Inclusion & Social Action Network (ELISAN) and the Union nationale des centres communaux d'action sociale (UNCCAS), with the support of the Committee of the Regions, in Brussels on Tuesday 8 November. The main aim of the conference was to inform the debate on the concept of social innovation, and to propose an overview, putting forward concrete projects, easily transferable from one region to another. Discussions were fuelled by the universally acknowledged need to adopt a new paradigm so as no longer to be constrained by a reactive and sectoral approach to social issues, particularly for older people, within the EU, said Janusz Galeziak, Adviser to the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU. There has to be social innovation as demand continues to increase as a result of insecurity of those outside the labour market, poor workers and single-parent families, said MEP Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France). She also noted that social innovation has to face a dual challenge: finding innovative approaches, on the one hand, and, on the other, putting them into practice in environments where it is difficult to change firmly established habits, both those of target populations and of public administrations. There is a need to take stock of daily emergency social action, she stated. The programme put forward by the Steering Group of the pilot European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing chimes perfectly with this. The Strategic Implementation Plan sets out five recommendations based on three main areas: prevention (regular evaluation of treatment and early diagnosis), care (constructing innovative integrated care models for the chronically ill and promoting solutions which include the use of information and communication technology and treatment) and independent living (solutions to prevent falls and tackle malnutrition, which results in frailty and functional decline). (JK/transl.rt)