CIVIL SOCIETY: 276 PRACTICES
Mission ANTHROPOS is a Greek nonprofit, Non Governmental Organisation, founded in 2010 with the aim to provide free and without discrimination medical support to vulnerable people, who do not have access to the NHS.
Read more: www.missionanthropos.com
The empowerment of seniors and caregivers in Long-Term Care Homes for the Elderly, through the innovative collaboration between the Academic Community, Civil Society Organizations and the Private Sector.
The program combines the empowerment, socialization and improvement of the quality of life of the elderly guests, with the training and empowerment of their caregivers in relation to the prevention and treatment of geriatric syndromes that they are required to manage in their daily work, strengthening their mental resilience.
Seniors residing permanently in Non-Profit Care Homes and Caregivers of Seniors from respective institutions.
2022-2024
The program manages to improve the mental and physical health of Seniors residing permanently in non-profit care homes and to extend their level of functionality, in 3 ways:
In addition, the School of Physical Education and Sport Sciences joined the program as a pilot, with third-year students visiting a Care Home for two months, teaching psychomotor and strengthening exercises to the seniors while playing.
A key innovation of the program is the inclusion of the students of the interdisciplinary Master's Program "Physiology of Aging and Geriatric Syndromes" of the Medical School, who participated in all aspects of the program through the Service-Learning methodology, aiming at transforming academic knowledge to the benefit of Society. "Improving the lives of the elderly II" was distinguished in an EKPA competition for Service-Learning programs and was awarded in June 2024 in Bucharest by the European Forum for Service-Learning.
The program was funded by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and continues with funding from the TIMA-Charitable Foundation.
The program benefited more than 60 seniors, through their participation in a total of 95 online meetings with the pupils over 2 years, in addition to the 13 seniors who completed the Geriatric Assessment. The meetings offered them new stimuli, prompts to practice skills, company and opportunities to socialize. At the same time, our volunteer pupils evaluated their satisfaction from their involvement in the meetings with seniors at 4.6/5, stating that through their participation they gained new knowledge about the elderly and increased their awareness towards fellow human beings and their needs (100%).
As for the Geriatric Assessments, they gave the seniors personalized advice to extend and improve their level of functionality, while student visits prompted them to implement some suggested changes to their lives. A second Geriatric assessment is planned to determine their overall improvement.
In addition, 94 caregivers from 11 partner-organizations participated up to 7 online Training and Empowerment Seminars. Moreover, 20 one-on-one meetings were held between each of the 4 Care Homes with the facilitators of each subject, to discuss incidents they encounter in their work, as well as an in-person seminar on the topic of falls and mobility in the Care Homes that fully joined the program. The evaluation of the overall satisfaction of the participating caregivers reached 4.7/5, which related both to their overall participation in the seminars, as well as to the individual online meetings in the context of their discharge and empowerment.
The vast majority of the program took place online (student-senior meetings, webinars).
Four in-person elements were held within Attica region, such as student visits, doctor visits and some educational seminars that were held in each of the 4 Elderly Care Units. The Geriatric Assessments were held at the Henry Dunant Hospital Center.
The program is defined by the involvement of 17 different partners. It was designed by the organization Mission ANTHROPOS and is implemented in collaboration with the MSc Program "Physiology of Aging and Geriatric Syndromes" of the Medical School School of the NKUA, and the Center for Geriatric Assessment of the Henry Dunant Hospital Center, under their Corporate Social Responsibility, thus creating a tripartite alliance between University, Private Sector and Civil Society.
Four (4) Non-profit Care Homes for the Elderly fully participated in the program for 2 years, namely:
Meanwhile, eight more partner organizations were invited to participate in part of the seminars towards caregivers that were given, namely:
In addition, the Nursing Home "St. Anargyroi" and the School of Physical Education and Sports Sciences of the NKUA also joined elements of the program.
The smoothly implementation of the program was monitored by the Program Manager and the Programs Coordinator, worked closely with all partners, mainly the Center of Geriatric Assessment and the Academic staff.
Essential to the program were our 84 volunteers, namely: 59 pupils, 5 Msc students from the Medical School, 10 students from the School of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, and 10 general volunteers.
