WeDO: A European Partnership for the Wellbeing and Dignity of Older people

What is the WeDO project?

The WeDO project is a European project cofinanced by DG Employment and Social affairs of the European Commission under the call for proposal for a Pilot project on Preventing Elder abuse. It is the continuity of the EUSTACEA project who developed a European Charter of the rights and responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance an its accompanying guide (more information: www.age-platform.eu/en/daphne). It is coordinated by AGE Platform Europe and gathers 18 partners coming from 12 different member states. The project’s overall objective is to develop a lasting and growing European partnership of organisations committed to work together to promote the wellbeing and dignity of vulnerable and disabled older people and prevent elder abuse through the promotion of quality long-term care. The project began on the 1^st December 2010 and will last 2 years.

• Information paper on the project
• Power point presentation on the project (made to prepare the first national coalition meetings)

Go to the WeDO website on : www.wedo-partnership.eu !

Background information

In the last few years, the issue of abuse and negligence against vulnerable older people has gained importance at European and national levels. Public authorities, policy makers, care providers and end users’ organisations are now aware that, just like child abuse, elder abuse can no longer be tolerated and measures must be put in place to ensure that all older persons who become depend on others for care and assistance are adequately protected and can enjoy a dignified old age.

The WeDO project builds on the momentum that has been created over the last few years at European level by successive EU Presidencies with the support of the European Parliament^, the European Commission, and takes due account of Article 25 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 16 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and of the UN Madrid Action Plan on Ageing, the outcome of key European funded projects, and existing instruments and crucial work already done at national and local level in some Member States.

With this project, we hope to help public authorities, long-term care service providers and funders respond adequately to the growing needs of our ageing population in today’s context of economic crisis, budget consolidation and rapid societal change. Important reforms are under way in the long-term care field: there an increasing outsourcing of services, greater cross-border mobility of care professionals and of service users, an increasing participation of end-users and their families in the financing of their LTC costs as well as greater public expectations that something needs to be done to protect the growing number of frail older people from the risk of elder abuse and to promote the quality of LTC services.

Project outcomes

The project aims at enabling all interested stakeholders to discuss, exchange experiences and good practice both at national and EU level, and to develop together a pro-active approach to elder care based on commonly agreed fundamental principles.

It will seek to develop a voluntary European Quality Framework for Long-Term Care in institutional, community and home care settings. This framework will comprise a set of fundamental principles that all partners will develop together and will agree to adhere to, using the European Charter of Rights and Responsibilities of older people in need of long-term care and assistance developed by the EUSTACEA project as a basis. This European Quality Framework for LTC will seek to support and to build on the outcomes of other key European funded projects (EUROPeAN, Breaking the taboo, ABUEL and MILCEA) and on the work of the Social Protection Committee on a European voluntary quality framework for social services.

The Partnership will also develop a European Partnership Guide which will include recommendations for participatory quality development, control and labelling tools. These tools will be based on the European Quality Framework and will be adaptable to different national/regional structural and legal contexts. They will seek to help Member States implement the European Quality Framework and European Charter by translating them into concrete achievements and better quality delivery for LTC service users. This guide will be developed thanks to the support of the Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen (DZA) who played a key role in the development of the German Charter of Rights for People in Need of Long-Term Care and Assistance and its implementation process in the German long-term care field, and with the guidance of the Vrij Universiteit Brussels - Belgian Ageing Studies (VUB-BAS) who developed a methodological tool that has been successfully implemented in various “ageing well” projects set up by local authorities,

At the end of the project, we hope that all partners will commit to set up a national strategy for the wellbeing and dignity of older people to implement the European Quality Framework and  use the European Partnership Guide to develop or adapt their own quality development, control and labelling tools. We hope also that all partners will commit to continue to share their experience and work together on the long term to ensure that actions taken by the different stakeholders can be mutually supportive by remaining involved in the European Partnership.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 15:29