Need Institute collaborates on the research on aging in place awarded by the Ferrero Foundation.
The Place4Carers project, in collaboration with NEED INSTITUTE, was awarded by the Ferrero Foundation during the international conference “Successful aging 2019: Body and Mind Connection”. The aim of the award is to recognize the fundamental contribution of technology in favor of aging.
Place4Carers is a community-based participatory research which aims to co-generate, develop and implement a new social and community service to promote the active involvement of family caregivers of older people residing in remote and rural areas of the Camonica Valley – Lombardia, Italy. Family caregivers take care, outside of a professional context and free of charge, of a person in need of long-term care.
The project aims to implement the principles of “aging in place” in that particular area, that is, the enhancement of active and healthy aging in people’s places of life. To achieve this, it is essential to make family carers involved in the care of their loved ones. Moreover, in remote and rural areas, caregivers are faced with much more complex challenges than those who live in the city, due to the greater effort in accessing services.
Based on these premises, Place4Carers intends to support and develop the involvement of family caregivers of elderly citizens, in close collaboration with socio-health workers and researchers, with the aim of implementing new services and giving them greater support by making them full-fledged actors of the welfare system.
A further objective of the project will be to evaluate the implementation of this type of service with caregivers operating in similar contexts such as the Camonica Valley.
The project will not only help to expand scientific knowledge on Aging in place and to actively involve the caregivers, but will also offer specific food for thought on the most appropriate interventions to support family members in remote and rural areas.
The Place4Carers project is funded by the Cariplo Foundation and coordinated by the Università Cattolica del sacro Cuore – Milan, in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan, NEED Institute and the Research and Innovation Development Area of the Territorial Company for Personal Services in the Camonica Valley.