SOCIALCARE

SOCIALCARE will be a central digital meeting point where citizens in a local community can come together to organise and provide care and well-being for older persons. Depending on the care need of a person, different care functionalities and service providers can be added and organised within a group from the community, consisting of neighbours, family and volunteers. E-learning modules are available with basic instructions on first aid, fall prevention and care to support the work in the community.

SOCIALCARE services will be provided on mobile devices (tablet, smart phone) and administration interfaces are available on desk top computers. The technological solutions will be developed together with end users and transition town initiatives who will be involved throughout the entire project. Pilots are organised in The Netherlands and Austria, where the solutions will run within the community to evaluate the impact of technology on care and well-being for older people at local level.

Objectives

Due to the continued pressure on European care systems, citizens are starting to take control of their own community by organising care and well-being services for older people. These communities we call transition towns. They are grassroots community projects set up in response to the societal challenge of providing care and well-being in an ageing society. Some transition towns even create formal care cooperatives where care for older people is organised bottom up, in collaboration with older people, volunteers, families, neighbours and professional caregivers. The SOCIALCARE project aims to support these initiatives.

Expected results and impact

The aim is to provide for a ready to use platform for communities organising themselves to support older people. A business model is being developed, foreseeing a social enterprise that exploits the SOCIALCARE platform together with consultancy services for communities. Consultancy services focus on setting up community cooperatives with the support of the SOCIALCARE platform, organising volunteers, involving local stakeholders and introducing ICT to older people. SOCIALCARE aims to offer an alternative in the way we organise care in Europe by supporting these bottom up approaches of transition towns.

Partners

Partners involved in the SOCIALCARE project

Organization	Type	Country	Website
Stichting Nationaal Ouderenfonds	End User	The Netherlands	www.ouderenfonds.nl
Eerste Verdieping Internet Communities	SME	The Netherlands	www.eersteverdieping.nl
LIFEtool gem. GmbH	End User	Austria	www.lifetool.at
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria	R&D	Austria	www.fh-ooe.at
Johanniter Österreich Ausbildung und Forschung gem. GmbH.	SME	Austria	www.johanniter.at
ISOIN - Ingeniería y Soluciones Informáticas	SME	Spain	www.isoin.es
Worldline Iberia SA	Large Industry	Spain	es.worldline.com
Johanniter International	End User	Belgium	www.johanniter.org

Project name: SOCIALCARE – A SOCIALCARE NETWORK for CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT and CARE SUPPORT in LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Website: www.socialcarecommunity.eu
Coordinator: Stichting Nationaal Ouderenfonds (National Foundation for the Elderly)
Duration: 28 months
Starting Date: 01.05.2015
Total budget: € 2.381.441,00
Public contribution: € 1.558.878,00

Contact

Nina van der Vaart

E.: n.vandervaart@ouderenfonds.nl

T.: +31 30 6567774