Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Steering Committee
Time: 30 May 2000
Place: Hotel Hakonsgården, Västerås, Sweden
Participants:
Antero Heloma, chair, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland
Panos Amiridis, Union of Local Authorities of Prefecture of Kilkis, Greece
Birgitta Ellénius, County Council of Västmanland
Harri Mäkinen, Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare, Finland
Tuuli Paaksi, Harju County Government, Estonia
Gabriela Semrian, The City Hall of Timisoara, Romania
Bo Simonsson, County Council of Västmanland
Olof Walldén, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden
Sara Åslund, County Council of Västmanland
Tarja Äijälä, secretary, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland
Opening of the meeting
The chairman, Antero Heloma opened the meeting and welcomed all participants to the meeting.
The first newsletter will be published in summer 2000. The partners should send their articles, maximum two to three pages to Tarja Äijälä no later than 30th of June 2000. The English language revision will be made by the S. Finland. The newsletter can be translated into other languages as well. Information on printing and design costs of the English version will be sent to the partners. S. Finland will cover the costs of the international version, but costs of the national versions are to be covered by each region. The newsletter will also be installed to the Internet home page of SPE.
The Internet home page will be updated during the summer. If the partners have information related to the SPE project on their own Internet pages they should send it to the project management to be included in the SPE web page.
A brochure in English of SPE has been published. It will be sent to the partners on week 23. Possibilities for translating the brochure to other languages were discussed. Tarja Äijälä will send information on printing costs to the partners.
Posters about SPE in English and in other languages were discussed.
Scientific and other articles of the activities of SPE can also be published in newspapers.
Netdays Europe 2000 will be organised 20–27 November 2000. ULAK will send information of it to the project leader.
Approval of the agenda for the meeting
The agenda for the meeting was approved.
Approval of the minutes for the 4th meeting of the Steering Committee
The minutes for the 4th meeting of the Steering Committee were approved.
4a Progress reports from the ERDF regions
Västmanland:
14 municipalities are involved in the SPE project in Sweden. There are two local project leaders in the region, one for Västmanland and the other for Bergslagen.
In Västmanland the pharmaceutical companies have shown interest in the SPE project and have contributed in materials that are used in the training courses.
The hip-trousers "Safe Hip" and loading-belts have been purchased in Västmanland. The usage of the hip-protection garments will be documented.
In Västmanland training courses started on May 18, 2000 and will continue in autumn. In Bergslagen training courses will start in September.
Kilkis:
The registration of accidents has proceeded without problems. The day centre in Herso is almost ready. Only some equipment is still needed. Discussion on how the services will be organised is continuing.
On the political level the services for the elderly have gained more interest. It is important to maintain the new services also after the project has been finished.
S. Finland:
In Finland the associate partners and three municipalities have submitted four proposals for sub-projects.
The sub-project proposals are the following:
"Refreshing the memory"group for elderly people is run by the Dementia Association of Northern Kymenlaakso. The groups started in April. The association is also activating elderly people's own voluntary work.
"The hopes and needs of family caretakers" project is run by the municipality of Elimäki. Three other municipalities are also involved with the project. Discussion on how the project will be organised in practice is continuing.
"Repairing and modernising of service homes for the elderly" is run by the Lappeenranta Service Centre Foundation. The design costs of the service homes will be covered by SPE.
Presentations on how to avoid home accidents are organised by the Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare
The Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare has sent a co-operation plan for the other training institutions of SPE and they are waiting for responses.
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4b Progress reports from the Phare regions
Timisoara:
The City Hall of Timisoara has received the first payment of the Phare funds from the Harju County Government.
Antero Heloma visited Timisoara in April and had a meeting with NGO’s in the region.
The West University of Timisoara has performed a study on social isolation among 300 elderly in the Timisoara area.
The City Hall of Timisoara has found suitable premises for the pilot centre, but the premises still need an approval from the City Council. The training of home care personnel will be started in September.
Harju:
The registration of accidents started on 1 January 2000. A check-up with the Central Sickness Fund was done in order to guarantee the registration of all cases.
The study of social isolation in Harju County will start in autumn 2000.
The first part of a three part training course started in the end of March. The course will continue in June and in autumn.
An information seminar for the elderly was organised. The second information seminar will be organised in October.
The purchase of aid equipments for the pilot centre will start soon.
Interim report on data collection
Bo Simonsson will ask the members of Working group 1 for a short local analysis of the reasons for the fall accidents.
Scientific articles on results whether projects like SPE can reduce the number of fall accidents will be published.
Summary of the results will also be added to the Internet home page and to the reports for the European Commission.
Interim report on monitoring and internal evaluation
Continuing documentation is proceeding. Sara Åslund asks the partners to send short reports to her regularly. The partners should only answer the questions asked.
The importance of diary notes were emphasised. Notes should be made of accepted/unaccepted results and difficulties.
Sara Åslund has sent instructions for the group interviews to the members of Working group 2. The group interviews for the personnel and the elderly will be made during January–April 2000.
An evaluation of the work of the Steering Committee will be done. The questions will be sent to the co-ordinators by e-mail.
Working group for social isolation
The Romanian partner has carried out a study of social isolation among 300 elderly in the Timisoara area. The Harju County will make a survey in September. The results will be analysed and reported by the West University of Timisoara.
Finland, Sweden and Greece will send the results and methods of earlier studies that have been done in these countries to Romania.
Harju County Government will inform Gabriela Semrian by e-mail about the best method to transmit data to Romania.
Working group for technical aid equipment
Collecting of materials about aid equipment is continuing. Olivia Haritidou has had meetings with some producers of the equipment.
Partners will send information of the technical aid equipment used in their regions to Olivia Haritidou by end of June.
The ULAK will publish a brochure on gerontechnological equipment in English and Greek in August.
9 General discussion and plans for the next three months
The SPE project received positive attention in AER meeting held in Ponta Delgada in March.
The Provincial State Office of Southern Finland has submitted a request to the Commission of the extension of the ERDF agreement until November 2001.
The project leader will sort out with the Commission about the date the Interim Report shall be due.
The next Steering Committee meeting will be held on 22-23 September 2000 in Brussels. The principal partners will be informed about the hotel and the meeting venue later.
The third major meeting of SPE will take place on March 2001 (week 10 or 11) in Timisoara, Romania. However, the date was not finally fixed yet.
Ending of the meeting
The chairman closed the meeting and thanked the Västmanland County Council for their excellent work for organising the second major meeting.
Antero Heloma Tarja Äijälä
Chairman Secretary