Well, you may not have heard about Tourinnes-La-Grosse, but this village in the middle of the countryside of Wallonia (Belgium) has been at the center of vivid exchanges of perspectives around innovation and how to stimulate innovation in rural areas. The Réseau Wallon de Développement Rural dedicated 2 intensive days (17-18 May 2018) to innovative approaches and methodologies, during which two European projects were presented by AGE Platform Europe.
The Horizon 2020 FrailSafe project presented its approach to frailty, and its safe, acceptable and unobtrusive products to intervene against frailty in a preventive and pro-active approach, providing the audience (in particular local actors from various backgrounds) with a comprehensive overview of the FrailSafe potential, especially in rural areas. For instance, the FrailSafe online platform allows older people to monitor their health at home and follow the personalized recommendations sent by the system (and checked by the person’s doctor) to tackle frailty. Besides, general practitioners can track patients’ health data remotely, and get directly in touch with them if their health is at stake.
The Horizon 2020 MobileAge project highlighted the benefits and challenges of the co-creation approach, which is at the heart of the project. In MobileAge, co-creating with seniors has allowed the delivery of mobile apps for older people: such apps have been thought, designed, and implemented directly with the final beneficiaries with the objective to help them move around, participate in events, be more socially included and improve their health. Besides, the project will soon issue guidelines on co-creation, and an on-line platform to support the co-creation process, alongside with another on-line platform for developers. Most importantly, policy recommendations addressed to local authorities and decision-makers will be disseminated in the autumn, as well as presented in the project’s final event (Brussels, 9 October 2018).
An overview of the presentations is available here, on the website of the Réseau PWDR (Réseau Wallon du Développement Durable). For more information, please get in touch with ilenia.gheno@age-platform.eu and ophelie.durand@age-platform.eu for the MobileAge Project and nhu.tram@age-platform.eu for the FrailSafe project..