Time:13th of December 1999, 16:00-20:00
Place: Union of Local Authorities of the Prefecture of Kilkis (ULAK)
1 Lekka str., 61100 Kilkis-Hellas, Greece
Present: Antero Heloma, chair, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland
Panos Amiridis, Union of Local Authorities of Prefecture of Kilkis, Greece
Inger Fälth, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden
Tuuli Paaksi, Harju County Government, Estonia
Gabriela Semrian, The City Hall of Timisoara, Romania
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. He thanked ULAK for inviting the principal partners to Kilkis.
2. Approval of the agenda for the meeting
The agenda for the meeting was approved.
3. Approval of the minutes for the 2nd meeting of the Steering Committee
The minutes for the 2nd meeting of the Steering Committee was approved.
4. ERDF budgets
The proposal of the ERDF budget and the breakdown between the three regions was presented
to the partners. The staff costs have been allocated proportionally to the regions. It was
pointed out that the maximum of public authorities' staff costs can be only one fourth of
the total costs of the project. The partners should send their comments of the proposed
budget by e-mail to Antero Heloma by 20 December 1999. The partners were asked not to
change the amounts of staff costs.
5. Phare contract and budgets
The Phare contract has been signed by the Commission and the Estonian partner on the 17th
of November 1999. The Harju County Government has sent the signed contract back to the
Commission and has requested for the first payment of 40 %. The Commission has informed
that the funds will be released in the beginning of February 2000. The Commission will
send the second payment of the Phare funds after the progress report and the third payment
after the final report. The City Hall of Timisoara must send an invoice and a special
request of their 40 % of Phare funds to Harju County Government in order to receive the
funds. Many questions concerning financing and allocation of the funds are still open.
Tuuli Paaksi will sort them out with the SCR office before Christmas holidays.
6. Registration of accidents
General requirements for the registration of accidents are the following:
- registration period 1 January-30 June 2000
- the population of the registration area must be 50,000 minimum
- the registration form will be filled in of all accidents (dental care excluded)
- the form will be filled in of all patients born in the year 1940 or earlier
- the summary form will be filled once a month
The registration and summary forms were introduced to the partners. Antero Heloma will do
the final changes which were agreed in the Steering Committee and send the final English
versions to the partners by 15 December. The partners are free to add some questions
relevant for their region, but there should not be too many of those. However, the
complete text of the English version must be presented. Each principal partner shall
translate and copy their own forms, but Västmanland has promised to make the Romanian and
Greek translations and let the respective regions to do the final checking. An
introductory letter will be written by the project leader and sent to the partners.
7. Regional networks
Västmanland: The County Council of Västmanland will arrange kick-off seminars
for the project in February/March. The purpose of these seminars will be to awake the
interest of the health care directors in the measures to prevent falls among the elderly.
Special training will be provided for the nursing staff to act as instructors in fall
prevention. The basic elements of the regional project are: financial plans, evaluation,
and participation of the voluntary and elderly people's organisations. The Västmanland
County Council has developed a strategy for the implementation:
- clear vision and goal
- formulation of the expected outcome
- action plan for implementation
- plan for dealing with resistance
- follow up and evaluation during the process.
The instruments for the implementation are:
- financial incentives aligned with the goals
- training of the employees
- identification of key stakeholders and power groups
- conveyance of the goals and expected outcome to key groups and key actors.
Kilkis:
- The Vocational Training Centre Epimorfotiki Kilkis will start to train those responsible
for the registration of accidents on the week 51.
- ULAK will perform a study on the social isolation of the elderly in Kilkis Prefecture.
- Herso municipality has proceeded with the preparation of a service centre for the
elderly. Herso has also started to employ staff. The selection of the elderly for the
centre has been discussed.
- The hospital in Kilkis will list the equipment already used in the hospital and in other
hospitals in Greece and then for the equipment used in other countries. Epimorfotiki
Kilkis has finished with the selection of the nature of the training course, the trainees
and the trainers.
8. Finland:
A national task force has been nominated in November. The task force had it first meeting
in the end of November. Each associate partner will have its own specific responsibility
in the SPE project. Also a regional co-ordinator has been appointed. The Finnish network
had it’s first meeting on the 20th of October. The next network meeting will be on
the 16th of December.
The registration of accidents will take place in one hospital and five health centres.
Antero Heloma and Harri Mäkinen, the regional co-ordinator, visited Harju County
Government in November and met a representative of the Tallinn Pedagogical Seminar
responsible for training in SPE.
Romania:
A meeting with associate partners was organised in Timisoara. On the 11th of November
"the Elderly people's day" was celebrated. The West University of Timisoara has
designed a questionnaire for social isolation. The students are testing the questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be sent to the partners for comments before end of this year.
Estonia:
A separate meeting was held with Antero Heloma and Harri Mäkinen to discuss the general
development of the projects in Estonia and especially the training component. The person
responsible for training, Maiju Kullemäe will visit the Elimäki Institute of Social
Welfare on January 2000. The registration of accidents will be performed in Western Harju
County by all general practitioners, health centres, out-patient clinics and hospitals in
the area. Two large hospitals in Tallinn will be also included. The preparation of a day
care centre has been started. The employment of staff will be finished in January and the
training of the staff begins in the end of January.
8. Expert working groups
The nominations for the expert working group 2, 3 and 4 should be sent to the project
leader no later than 15 January 2000. Funds permitting the members of the working group 2
will also attend the next Steering Committee meeting.
9. Training
The issues on training in regions were mainly discussed in point 7. No person from the
training organisation was present in the meeting. Possibilities for training or lecturing
via the Internet were discussed.
10. Web site and Newsletter
The structure for SPE in the Internet was presented to the partners. The partners should
send the web site information to Tarja Äijälä no later than 20th of December. The
material for Newsletter should be sent to Tarja Äijälä no later than 31st of December.
11. Promotion materials
The project leader will elaborate a project promotion plan for the next meeting. The
principal partners can publish own promotion materials in their languages.
12. Other issues
A model copy from the Commission of the standard six-monthly report was handed out for the
regional co-ordinators, who will give their regional reports by 7 January to the project
leader.
The Commission will organise an Ecos-Ouverture seminar for project co-ordinators 27-28
January in Brussels. Tarja Äijälä, Tuuli Paaksi and Panos Amiridis will attend the
seminar.
The next Steering Committee meeting will be held 31 March – 1 April 2000. The
principal partners will be informed about the venue later. A place where all partners have
easy and inexpensive access by air will be chosen.
The mid-project meeting of SPE will take place 28 – 30 May 2000 in Västerås,
Sweden.
13. Ending of the meeting
The chairman closed the meeting and once again thanked the Greek partner for excellent
organisation and warm hospitality.
Antero Heloma
Chairman
Tarja Äijälä
secretary