Active ageing into practice!
Experiences of civic engagement in
health policies
Alessio Terzi, Teresa Petrangolini, Giulia Savarese
Cittadinanzattiva
General Purposes
1. increase awareness and information on the active participation of
ageing citizens in the enforcement of their patients’ rights in all EU
countries with their double role of:
• empowered patients;
• active citizens who act in the community;
2. demonstrate how the active role of "empowered ageing
patients/users" can contribute to face the challenges resulting from the
crisis of the European social and "demographic"model, maintaining the
health care universalism.
3. promote the active participation of ageing people in health-care policy
and services in order to enhance well-being in old age and avoid that
diseases can be cause of their social exclusion.
A Survey on best practices of Active Ageing
40 best practices coming from 18 member
states were collected, studied and subdivided in
three areas:
1. Ageing empowerment on policies
2. Ageing empowerment on communities
3. Individual empowerment.
Areas have been analyzed in order to
four highlight:
* actors
* empowerment processes
* the relation with welfare systems
* working procedures used by the active
citizenship
Actors: a multi-stakeholder approach
Ageing
empowerment
in policies
Ageing
empowerment
in communities
Ageing
individual
empowerment
Public
Authorities
3
2
6
Universities
=
3
1
Scientific
Societies
=
2
2
Third Sector
1
1
9
Civic
Organisations
4
2
4
An empowerment process
“a mechanism allowing people,
organizations and communities to
boost their capability to control their
lives” (Rappaport).
Ageing empowerment in policies
1. The integration of active citizens on decision-making
and evaluation of public policies process, with particular
reference to the health field.
2. The establishment of new services
3. The advocacy field (Bulgaria)
Ageing empowerment in communities
1) Spotting and education of a new resource:
proximity agents.
2) Setting up at local level protection,
information and animation centres
managed by associations or elderly
groups in collaboration with experts
Ageing Individual Empowerment
•Access to services through the IT
• Management of disease
• Management of medicines and dressing
• Lifestyles and autonomy
• Rehabilitation
• Self-help group participation
• Tumble prevention
• Violence prevention
• Public transport to access services
• Relation with youngster
On the look-out for a new welfare
One of the characteristic of the European identity is
the spread all around EU member states of a social
model with high levels of protection enabling the
improvement of the quality of life. This means the
consequent increase of the average longevity.
However, this great success caused severe problems
to the entire sustainability process, as numberless of
experts and politicians underlined.
Are we going toward a shared welfare?
The reform of the welfare models is intended to produce relevant
changes in the public life. Two conditions are necessary to avoid
that it becomes only a limitation to the rights of the citizens:
• a further democratization of the public institutions with a strong
assumption of responsibility by the decision makers and policy
makers, the transparency in the decisions taken, the decrease of
wastage and of privileges, the fight against corruption and
influence peddling, the introduction of serious form of
evaluations of the policies and of governing;
• an important involvement of the citizens and their resources.
Some possible characteristics of a new
way of operating in the health service
•The empowered user (patient centered care)
•Community agents (information and education)
•Seniors Networks (communication and monitoring)
•Seniors Socializing Centers (to decrease solitude and
exclusion)
•The development of civic participation (to really
include active citizenship in planning and
implementation of policies)
Mobilization of active citizenship/1
The promotion of civic activism.
There is a significant proportion of elderly
people who, having a significant life
expectancy, for various reasons, would
undertake social activities.
BP show that a simple public announcement
may be enough to mobilize this energy.
Mobilization of active citizenship/2
Relevance vs. representation
The relevance can be defined as the ability of
civic organizations to make a difference in policy
making thank to one or more of their
characteristics …
Thanks to the concept of relevance, the question
of representativeness of civic organizations can
be interpreted as a matter of capacity rather than
as a match to abstract criteria (Moro).
Mobilization of active citizenship/3
The construction of a civic environment
In general, all examined initiatives acted in
this way, creating centers of reference,
resulting in mobilization and animation of
public debates in which the issues of older
people acquire a general relevance and
doesn’t remain confined within the health and
welfare.
Mobilization of active citizenship/4
Create information to set up new policies.
The success of many public policies depend on
the information provided by citizens (one need
only consider health, immigration and the
environment).
Nearly all the initiatives on the empowerment of
policies and of communities focus their attention
to the data collection and processing techniques.
Mobilization of active citizenship/5
Communication.
One of the biggest problems of civic activism
is the lack of visibility, namely the difficulty
to represent what you do, who are the people
doing it, and which results have been
achieved.
All good practices examined have paid
particular attention to the problem of
communication, but it remains a weak point.
Directions for Recommendations
1. National governments must ensure universality
of older people rights.
2. A specific commitment should concern to
develop both Europe and local community
strategies on ageing.
3. Policy makers must consider the aging
population not as a burden to bear with the
least possible commitment of resources but as
a resource for the resumption of growth
processes
Some proposal
1. EU: capitalize the 'European Year for Active
Ageing and Solidarity.
2. NG: remove obstacles in order to enable a
patient centered implementation of Healthcare
3. Local authorities: invest money and energy on
the training of senior community agents and
the establishment of socializing centers
4. Civic organizations: align their organizations
and their actions to the information provided
by the good practices
THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION