CARESS will help homecare practitioners across Europe improve their skills - Interview with Serena Alvino, SI4Life

Serena Alvino is the coordinator of CARESS. She has a PhD in “Languages, Cultures and ICTs” and a Degree in Educational Sciences with a thesis in the field of e-learning.

She has extensive experience in the field of educational sciences, instructional design, online collaborative learning and Virtual Communities of Practice.

These competences have been applied for many years in the research activities of SI4Life, which is an Italian regional hub, including big Research Institutes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), working in the field of quality of life of older adults and persons with disabilities. She is also the reference person for Regione Liguria Commitment in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA).

In this interview, Ms Alvino describes the main goals of CARESS and how the project will achieve them.

1. In one sentence, what is CARESS? What are its main objectives?
   CARESS is an ambitious project that aims to overcome the “skills gap” identified in the homecare for older adults, i.e. the gap between skills demanded by end-users and their families and those offered by national health systems, private care institutions and home care practitioners.
   
   
2. Why do we need a project like CARESS?
   Population ageing is one of the greatest social and economic challenges that the European Union is facing. By 2060, 155 million Europeans (30% of the total EU population!) will be 65 and older. This trend is putting pressure on EU health systems, already affected by budget shortages and a reduction in the services offered. Better care and sustainability of health services calls for innovative ways to address the needs of older adults. The development of homecare has been identified as a possible solution, but several conditions need to be met to ensure that it becomes a real solution:
   - Current disparities between EU countries (even between different regions) in the organisation and delivery of homecare should be smoothened;
   - Social and healthcare services should be better coordinated and integrated;
   - Investments in the professionalization of homecare practitioners should be fostered, and the European Union should play an active role in this regard.
   CARESS contributes crucially to the professionalization of homecare and the improvement of the quality of the services.
   
   
3. What is the added value of the project? What will it offer?
   CARESS will offer a clear picture of the main roles, competences and curricula of homecare professionals working both in health and social care at older adults’ own homes in different EU countries. For the first time this information will be collected and systematized in an EU Framework available for free in a web-based platform, in order to support designers of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the field of homecare to set up effective courses to address skills gaps.
   Specific tools integrated in the online EU Framework will guide the registered users to identify skills gaps and design VET modules to address them. The effectiveness of the framework will be tested by designing and implementing 3 pilots in 3 different countries (Italy, Spain and Finland) targeting 3 different kinds of homecare practitioners (Social-Health Operators, Graduated Nurses and Practical Nurses). Free and open Virtual Online Communities of Practitioners will be set up to allow for the sharing of best practices and to assure the sustainability of project results.
   
   
4. How can interested individuals and organisations engage with the project?
   There are ways to engage with the project, and CARESS is looking actively for supporting partners! These are stakeholders who profess an interest in the project and willingness to get updates about its main progresses and results; each supporting partner can define freely the level of involvement in the project they would like to establish. The most active supporting partners will be able to contribute to the review and integrate information in the EU Framework, provide their experience and share their own perspectives based on their professional profile and/or country. In such a way the EU framework will be “alive” and built in a “bottom-up” approach, and will represent accurately the current situation of homecare in Europe.