Antero Heloma, chair, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland

Birgitta Ellénius, County Council of Västmanland, Sweden

Harri Mäkinen, Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare, Finland

Gabriela Semrian, The City Hall of Timisoara, Romania

Dimitrios Vafidis, Municipality of Cherso, Greece

Sara Åslund, County Council of Västmanland. Sweden

Tarja Äijälä, secretary, Provincial State Office of Southern Finland

Tuuli Paaksi, Harju County Government, Estonia

Opening of the meeting

The chairman, Antero Heloma opened the meeting and welcomed all participants to the meeting.

The interim report will be submitted to the Commission by the 10^th of October. The regional co-ordinators should send their regional report by 29 September to the Project leader.

The Project leader has sent a letter to the Commission on the extension of the ERDF agreement until 16^th November 2001. On the request of the Commission an updated work programme was attached to the letter of 15^th September. The updated work programme was presented by the chairman and a paper version of it was handed out to the regional co-ordinators.

The first newsletter will be distributed to the partners after the middle of October. The chairman informed the participants about the possibility of the AER to give financial contribution for the evaluation seminar in Timisoara, but the question is still under discussion. New information is expected from the AER Committee B meeting 28-29 September in Sweden.

 

Approval of the agenda for the meeting

The agenda for the meeting was approved.

 

Approval of the minutes for the 5^th meeting of the Steering Committee

The minutes of the 5^th meeting of Steering Committee were approved.

 

4 a Progress reports from the ERDF regions

Västmanland:

There are two local project leaders in the region, one for Västmanland and the other for Bergslagen.

In Västmanland the training of instructors started in May. The training consists of three sessions, each 8 hours. The last session will be in November 2000.

Hip-trousers were taken in use in the municipalities and an instruction session was held.

In Bergslagen area five minicipalities started to test the hip protectors in May. There has been some problems in to motivate patients with dementia to wear the hip protectors. The fall accident prevention lectures are continuing.

Kilkis:

A summary of data collection of accidents was presented. Most of the accidents have been reported from the hospitals. Accidents that occurred to men were more serious than those suffered by women.

Epomorfotiki Kilkis Ltd has organised training for voluntary care takers.

S. Finland:

Memory rehabilitation groups started in April. The groups meet once a week. The Dementia Association also organises a group for the relatives of dementia patients and the group meet once a month.

The Lappeenranta Service Centre Foundation is repairing and modernising an old service home. The design costs of the service home will be covered by SPE

In the "Hope and needs of family caretakers" project a social and health care professional will interview 40 family caretakers in order to find out the expectations the caretakers have in different service sectors. The goal is to develop activities that support the work of family caretakers, and to find ways to promote spontaneous activities among the caretakers.

The Elimäki Institute of Social Welfare has organised short term courses on how to avoid home accidents.

In October during the Elderly People’s day in Elimäki the Institute will organise a SPE day. They will also arrange a short term course on home accidents for different associations.

 

Timisoara:

The registration of accidents was finished in July. A local analysis of the factors behind the accidents will be made.

The City Hall has obtained premises for the pilot centre. The training of the home care personnel will start in October.

In July there was a mayor’s meeting in Timisoara where the SPE project was presented.

Medical organisation Cristina has opened a service centre for the elderly in Timisoara

 

The chairman presented a procedure for internal evaluation.

The main messages were that evaluation is an objective, periodic stock taking to determine the status of a project in relation to its specific goals;

and the results of the mid-project evaluation findings can be used to affect the future course of the project.

 

Sara Åslund explained the techniques for the group interviews. The members of the Steering Committee were interviewed as an example of how to make a group interview.

Partners should send the proposals for the regional evaluation plan to Sara Åslund by 16 October 2000 at the latest.

The partners should send the results of continuing documentation to Sara Åslund by 29 September 2000. When reporting the activities the number of participants should also be stated.

For the interim report the expert working groups 3 and 4 should complete their evaluation plans with according to working groups 1 and 2. All partners were asked to send their comments for the mid-term evaluation report to Sara Åslund.

 

Pilot centre activities in Timisoara and the Working group for social isolation

Suitable premises for the pilot centre have been found. The renovation will begin soon. The training of home care personnel will be started in October. Altogether 20 persons will participate in the training. The training consists of three days of lectures and two days of practice.

The West University of Timisoara has performed a study on social isolation among 300 elderly in the Timisoara area. The students will start analysing the data in October. The study on social isolation in Harju County will start in September.

Finland, Sweden and Greece will send the results and methods of earlier studies that have been done in these countries to Romania.

The final reports of the work of the expert working groups should include also recommendations. The recommendations will be discussed in the Steering Committee during the major meeting in Timisoara in spring 2001.

 

Matters concerning the ERDF and Phare budgets

The chairman presented the preliminary expenditure by category and by ERDF countries.

Minor budget modifications can be made without an approval from the Commission. Budget modifications are considered minor if the increase does not exceed 10 % of the amount given in the budget for the category in question.

The next report to be submitted to the Commission in spring 2001 is the semi-annual report. The semi-annual report will be taken up for discussion in the next Steering Committee in Tallinn.

The Phare budget was not discussed in detail, because Tuuli Paaksi could not attend the meeting. Gabriela Semrian gave a short overview about the Phare budget. The budget is divided under three expenditure headings, and the expenditures cannot be taken from one heading to another without consent from the Commission.

The City Hall of Timisoara has used 50 % of the first payment.

Tuuli Paaksi will ask the Commission, if minor modifications inside the heading of the Phare budget can be made without an approval.

Preliminary report of Working group 1 for data collection

The final report of registration of accidents will be ready in two months time.

 

Partners were asked to send information on the technical aid used in their regions to Olivia Haritidou.

County Council of Västmanland will send the name of the contact person for the expert working group 4 to Greece.

ULAK will publish a brochure on gerontechnological equipment in English and in Greek.

 

General discussion and plans for the next three months

The co-ordinators were asked to inform Tarja Äijälä of how many copies of SPE Newsletter they want to be sent to the regions.

It was agreed that Southern Finland shall take care of the translation and printing of the Finnish and Swedish versions of the Newsletter. The text of the Swedish version will be sent for check-up to Birgitta Ellénius before printing. Västmanland is paying their own share of the costs of the Swedish version.

The newsletter will be published also at the SPE project web site. The layout of the Newsletter will be sent to Greece and Romania to make and print the versions in their own languages.

The co-ordinators were asked to elaborate regional and national promotion and dissemination plans of SPE for the next meeting .

Harri Mäkinen will send a questionnaire of the training activities on the regions to the regional co-ordinators.

The next Steering Committee meeting will be held on 12-13 January 2001 in Tallinn.

 

Ending of the meeting

The chairman thanked the participants and closed the meeting.

 

 

 

Antero Heloma                             Tarja Äijälä

Chairman                                     Secretary

 

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