Time: 24-25 September 1999
Place: Hotel Brussels, Avenue Louise 315, B-1050 Brussels
Participants:
Antero Heloma, chair, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland
Panos Amiridis, Union of Local Authorities of Prefecture of Kilkis, Finland
Inger Fälth, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden
Marie Johansson, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden
Periklis Kosmidis, Vocational Training Centre of Epimorfotiki Ltd, Greece
Harri Mäkinen, Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare, Finland
Tuuli Paaksi, Harju County Government, Estonia
Gabriela Semrian, The City Hall of Timisoara, Romania
Olof Walden, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden
Tarja Äijälä, secretary, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland
1. Opening the meeting
The chairman Antero Heloma opened the meeting and welcomed all participants to the
meeting. Problems with Phare funding have persisted so far. The Commission's office SCR,
which is responsible for PHARE funds, mistakenly sent the contract to Romania, and not to
Estonia who is the managing body of Phare funds in the project. The Commission has now
corrected the mistake and sent a new contract to Estonia. The SCR office has informed the
project leader that the funds may finally be released and the contract signed in October
1999. However, there is no guarantee of that.
The project has neither received the first payment from ERDF, although the project leader
has urged the Commission to send the payment quickly.
The Commission will probably arrange a meeting for all new projects of the Ecos-Ouverture
programme in the first week of November. Some more information about the situation
concerning funding may be given then.
Antero Heloma presented the logo for the project. The logo with explanations of the
designer will be sent to all principal partners. The logo should be used in all materials
that are published in the project. The logo has both a colour and a black-and-white
version, which both can be used as such, or together with the logo of any principal
partner.
2. Reports from ERDF regions
Västmanland:
The project leader has contacted the health planners of the region. Information of the
project was given to the health planners who passed on the information to the
municipalities. Seven municipalities have shown interest in the project and all of them
have been contacted. The pensioners' organisation PRO is going to form a regional network
with other pensioners organisations. The County Council of Västmanland will distribute
information about the project via local media.
Kilkis:
The Union of Local Authorities of the Prefecture of Kilkis (ULAK) has formed networks
based on regional working groups.
Network 1: 11 municipalities, orthopaedic surgeon from Kilkis, other doctors, health
centres, hospitals;
Network 2: a leader has been appointed;
Network 3: 10 municipalities, a contact person has been appointed in every municipality;
Network 4: a person responsible for the network has been appointed, contacts have been
established with the hospitals and providers of equipment.
Finland:
The project management has contacted and visited all the associate partners separately in
May. The first regional network meeting will take place 20th October 1999. A national task
force will be formed in October and a regional co-ordinator appointed.
3. Reports from Phare regions
Timisoara:
The local network meeting was organised 13 of July 1999. Altogether 21 persons from
governmental and non-governmental organisations attended the meeting. The general
objectives and the expected results from Timisoara was presented. All participants agreed
on the idea of building a regional network of institutions for the elderly. The principal
partner will make a brochure about social guidance for the elderly.
One of the associate partners will change.
Harju:
The Harju County Government organised a regional meeting on 1st July, 1999. Mrs Ene Päll
has organised an information seminar for the personnel of social and health departments of
local governments in Harju County. There has also been several meetings with the day care
centre in Tallinn.
11 municipalities from Harju region has promised to participate in the project.
4. Data collection on accidents
Mr Bo Simonsson from Västmanland County Council has sent a registration form on injuries
to the partners for comments. The comments should be sent to Bo Simonsson no later than
10th of October, 1999. The final questionnaire will be in use for 6 months starting 1st
December, 1999 and ending 31st May, 2000. The questionnaire will be used in all hospitals
and health centres, or in the bigger regions in certain selected hospitals and health
centres inside a smaller area. Some alterations in the form were suggested in the meeting.
The project leader will report Bo Simonsson about them.
5. Reports from the training institutions and plans for interregional collaboration
in the training
Mr Harri Mäkinen gave a presentation on the subject and reported about the activities in
Elimäki, Finland.
Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare arranged a meeting with the teachers.
Mr Mäkinen explained what the Elimäki Institute can give to the project, what it can
receive from the project and how they will do it.
In the meeting in Elimäki the following was discussed:
- developing training through co-operation with different training institutions
- improving the care of the elderly by learning from others who have different ways of
working
- finding solutions for the isolation of elderly
- arranging activities between students and the elderly
- studies and research made by the students
The regional co-ordinators reported the following:
Greece:
The Vocational Training Centre Epimorfotiki Kilkis arranges four different types of
training.
- training of the persons responsible for the SPE project
- training of volunteers
- training of family members and relatives
- training of personnel in the municipalities
Romania:
The West University of Timisoara arranges courses for the caretakers. The training takes
three months and the students receive diplomas after the course.
Estonia:
The Pedagogical Seminar of Tallinn arranges 160 hours training courses for the welfare
workers. The programme consists of different subjects. The purpose is to give the students
knowledge about social and health care systems for the elderly, to strengthen the
self-confidence of the carer, to learn new ways of action, and to find new solutions.
The chairman suggested training institutions work closely together to develop a common
training programme for the SPE project.
The training institutions should keep in touch and change ideas with each others as much
as possible.
It was discussed how the students from different institutions and countries could also
work together in the project, especially in research, but no proposal or decision was
made.
The Estonian partner is the main co-ordinator of the training activities.
6. Formation of expert working groups
The chairman reported about the present situation in the expert working groups.
Expert working group 1: Data collection on injuries
The group has been formed. The group is led by Västmanland. The chair of the group is Bo
Simonsson from the County Council of Västmanland.
Expert working group 2: Project monitoring and internal evaluation
The group is led together by the County Council of Västmanland and the Provincial State
Office of Southern Finland. Members of the expert working group 1 can also work in this
group. All regions need not have a representative in this group.
Expert working group 3: Social isolation of the elderly and declining family coherence
The group is led by Timisoara. The group will be located in the pilot centre in Timisoara
and led by Prof. Viorel Prelici. The group hears experts and national co-ordinates. The
Romanian partner will make a draft of questionnaire for social isolation. It will be sent
to other principal partners for comments.
Expert working group 4: Technical aid and gerontechnology
This group is led by Kilkis. The core of the group is the orthopaedic hospital in Kilkis.
The group works independently but hears the regional co-ordinators. The group will hand
out advice and information about gerontechnoly to the principal partners. All the groups
will work mainly through e-mail. Due to budgetary restrictions, meetings should generally
be avoided, but if needed, meetings can be arranged during the large seminars of the
project. The heads of the working groups should keep the regional co-ordinators informed
about the progress in the groups.
7. Newsletter and Internet page
The leading organisation will design the Internet homepage for the SPE project as soon as
possible, but no later than in the end of this year.
The project will publish a newsletter 3-4 times per year. Depending on the financing from
the Commission the first issue will be published before the end of 1999. The newsletter
will be first written in English by the project leader, and then translated into five
different languages. The principal partners will organise the translation and printing in
their own languages.
8. Miscellaneous
Budgets:
The chairman presented the new reduced budgets of the Phare regions. It was decided that
the County Council of Västmanland will send a new budget proposal to the project leader
by 11th of October 1999 at the latest. The City Hall of Timisoara will send a new budget
for Harju County Government and the project leader, because the Commission has made
reductions in the Phare budgets.
Antero Heloma will give a presentation of the SPE project in the 1st European Region
Meeting of Safe Communities in Vienna 4-5 October 1999.
The next meeting of Steering Committee will be held in Kilkis, Greece 13-14 December 1999.
Antero Heloma
Chair
Tarja Äijälä
Secretary