Back to Key Areas and Session Proposals

New Technology and Independence

Sessions in this area discuss projects, programs and products aiming to encourage senior citizens to be more independent through the use of new technology. For instance, household appliances in line with "Design for Everyone" policies; the development of technology in the field of "Environmental Intelligence," the inclusion and access of senior citizens in ICTs (close the digital gap), etc. Also, home care services and sub-products related to products specifically designed for elderly people as a mean of providing services and/or care are discussed.

Workshop proposal No. 1 (NRW):
ICT and Active Ageing

Background

Many older people are confronted with physical constraints and go through typical life-cycle trajectories that increase the likelihood that social contacts get lost or are reduced in quantity and quality. In addition, and with increasing age and reduced physical mobility, social care service demands of varying type increase. These are needed to enable people of higher age to continue in leading an independent life in their home environment and familiar neighbourhood.

“Independent Living” is described as a situation/scenario where a spectrum of services and products is provided that will allow citizens – regardless of the age – to lead an independent and healthy life ideally from their homes and not to be brought to residential care – and if so, be provided with the best possible spectrum of services – but also enhancing their quality of life by enabling them to take part in a full range of social, economic and cultural activities. “Independent living” is seen as a crucial prerequisite to allow for “active ageing” and an “ageing will”. Independent living is an elementary need of people.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) can play an important role and help to at least reduce and in some cases even compensate for such losses and offering support for an independent living by way of providing appropriate ICT-based services. It is against this background that home-based ICT services have gained in importance and will continue to do so in the future even more prominently. Therefore, especially the ICT-based services should be specifically addressed as part of a dedicated workshop.

Objectives and results

The concept of independent living has changed over time. It is no longer a question of helping the old and frail to cope with daily life. It is increasingly about enhancing their quality of life by enabling them to take part in a full range of social, economic and cultural activities in different spheres.

Presentations at the workshop could include good practice examples which are in full operation or at least at a pilot implementation stage from different European regions. These should cover a wide range of application areas and ICTs and could range from the last generation of smart home environments (e.g. Groenio Smart home and other Domotica environments in the Netherlands or those implemented as part of the SmarterWohnenNRW initiative in North Rhine-Wetphalia, Germany), ICT-based home safety services as implemented in several hundred households in West Lothian, Scotland, home-based video-telephony telecare services in Kortrijk, Belgium, to ICT-based services access cards for elderly people, alarm and response system and services like the Mobilalarm system which was implemented and piloted in different European countries, or a mobile monitoring system for older people suffering from dementia to prevent unsupervised movements by these people from those areas where they lead their daily life (cf. the wanderer monitoring system in Andalusia, Spain).

Possible VIP Session Output

The workshop may conduct to tangible output in a VIP Session in the shape of:

• Concrete proposal by an industry-led consortium addressing one or several of the above issues and involving several social care service providers and European regions as partners for piloting the implementation of an innovative ICT-based system and service solution to be developed with European funding support, or

• The intention of setting up such a European consortium for the development of such a proposal for submission to a European funding programme.

Workshop proposal No 2 (NRW):
Quality criteria for Home-Based Services

Background

Home-based services and their delivery are of crucial importance especially to older citizens and those lacking mobility. Their numbers are rapidly increasing as a result of the current demographic changes. There is a wide range of services in this area, which are already delivered to the homes of these target groups. These range from services like meals-on-wheels, care-related services for older people lacking mobility and/or suffering specific illnesses to alarm and security services of different type.

For the public sector for instance the International Standards Organisation (ISO) has developed quality criteria for the public sector (ISO 9000-20000) which are based on the Canadian Quality Criteria for the Public Sector, which the government of Canada has developed and implemented to strengthen citizen-centred service delivery. With the Quality Services Initiative, which started in 1995, the federal government demonstrated its commitment to serve Canadians better.

Service delivery standards and quality criteria may be seen as an instrument to ensure and secure quality service delivery also for a wide range of home-based services addressed to seniors. However, and different to areas like “service delivery in the public sector”, no quality criteria and standards yet exist for the delivery of services to the homes of individuals as described above.

Objectives and results

The workshop could present reports on already existing service and service delivery standards and quality criteria in the public sector and in areas also relevant to seniors, from which one could learn for the development of appropriate quality criteria and standards for home-based services addressed to an ageing population.

It could continue with the presentation of regional initiatives and pilot projects addressing this issue already, to learn from the specific processes they may have established to achieve this objective.
These could include standardisation type activities of a wider range including those aiming at making the fulfilment of specific quality criteria and standards mandatory to voluntary initiatives where their achievement and fulfilment are only recommended. In other initiatives an ombudsman may have been foreseen as a mechanism to act as arbitrator.

Possible VIP Session Output

The workshop may, in a VIP Session, culminate in the presentation of a declaration and agreement on the establishment of an OMC-like (Open Method of Coordination) process in European regions signed by (several) SEN@ER regions aimed at the

• Joint development of quality criteria for home-based services and their delivery through the involvement of relevant stakeholders including, for instance, regional and national consumer organisations including the establishment of

• A regional ombudsman or similar organisation acting as arbitrator in case of mal service provisions by a home-based service provider.

By signing such a declaration, the signing regions would demonstrate their commitment for moving ahead in an area of high relevance and importance for increasing the quality of life of the growing number and share of older citizens in European societies, further developing and strengthening the service providing industry and businesses in their regions, enabling them to provide top-level and innovative services, creating new markets for new service deliveries including ICT-based services thereby closing the gap between an already articulated and in future increasing demand on such services which in the very end will result in the creation of new jobs and businesses of a sustainable nature contributing to an increased competitiveness of European regional economies.

Thought should be given to the identification and specification of a role for the EC in this process and possible European funding schemes for supporting the coordinated development and piloting the implementation of such schemes in several European regions.