07.07.2023
- This innovative resource seeks to promote the social inclusion of older people and to promote a new approach to care, focusing on the talents and social needs of older people.
- The project has been funded by the European Union and developed by six international organisations: the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium, the Active Ageing Foundation and the University of Humanistic Studies (UvH) in the Netherlands, the University of Molise in Italy, the Büro für berufliche Bildungsplanung in Germany and Matia Instituto in Spain.
The international Erasmus+ project SEE ME, coordinated by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), has developed a practical toolkit that teaches professionals, carers and volunteers to see the person behind an older person in need of care. Older people have dreams, talents and wishes independent of their care needs. By actively involving older people, SEE ME aims to improve the quality of care and services they receive.
When you think of older people, how do you imagine them? Do you see them as people with skills, ideas and stories, or simply as people in need of care and dependent on others? Unfortunately, that second image is still too often the case in healthcare. In society, the focus is mainly on their medical and support needs.
The SEE ME project aims to promote the social inclusion of older people in society by challenging stereotypes and teaching caregivers to recognise their talents and social needs.
SEE ME has developed a free toolkit for anyone working with older people: professionals from residential or home care facilities, informal carers and volunteers from projects or neighbourhood associations.
The training, which consists of five modules of three hours each with creative exercises and methodologies, shows carers how they can discover the talents, needs and wishes of older people. One of the exercises is the talent scanner, which maps an older person's talents so that caregivers can work with and enhance them. For example: Anne, who is almost blind due to an eye disease, can enlarge and read aloud a text via her computer, and thus help neighbours with their correspondence.
The complete kit can be downloaded free of charge here