Certification for ageing in place
During this occasion the UNIVPM staff visited the pilot site of ‘Borgo Mazzini Smart Co-Housing’ which is currently testing the Homes4Life Certification Scheme.
The Homes4Life project organised a webinar on 9 July to present the Certification Scheme that has been developed during the past months. Participants had the opportunity to share their views on its strengths and weaknesses.
The webinar was moderated by Menno Hinkema, from TNO, who has also worked on the Taxonomy on which the Certification Scheme is based. The Taxonomy answers crucial questions in a structured and detailed way, such as:
Concretely, it compiles a set of indicators that can form the basis for more specific requirements and verifications in the certification pilots.
Christophe Gerard and Hervé Duret, from Certivéa, presented then the principles of the Homes4Life Certification Scheme and how it operates.
It is first of all open to all types of organisations (public or private, profit or non-profit) as well as to individuals. The Certification can be applied to buildings in design or in operation phase. It is structured around five main clusters which aim at covering all the aspects of an age-friendly environment. The personal and social ties or the economic capability, which contribute to the quality of life in housing, amount to 70% of the final score, while the more traditional aspects of adapting the home environment amount to 30%. The assessment method is based on design specifications, features and quality through a set of qualitative and quantitative requirements and an evaluative survey among the residents.
The Homes4Life project together with Housing Europe, the Centre for Ageing Better and the European Social Network organised a webinar on 30 June about age-friendly housing in the context of COVID-19.
Our homes and living environments are a key determinant of our overall health and impact upon our personal, emotional, economic and social wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic not only exposed more starkly Europe’s housing crisis, but also showed the fatal impact on older people living in congregated care settings and impact of poor housing on people’s health and wellbeing. Moderated by Nadia Kamel from Eurocarers, the aim of this webinar was to increase awareness and further build the case for quality, resilient and age-friendly housing in Europe.
Silvia Urra from Tecnalia, Project Coordinator of the Homes4Life project introduced Homes4Life project by reminding the audience that healthy ageing is not only about the absence of disease but rather about our ability to do the things we value most: this depends not only on our intrinsic capacity (our physical and mental health) but also on our environment. If our homes do not help to foster our inclusion in a community, this may lead to isolation and loneliness.
Continue reading “Age-friendly housing in the context of the COVID-19 crisis | Webinar report”
Considering the need for quality and resilient housing that can adapt as people’s needs evolve with age, the Homes4Life project intends to promote an age-friendly environment. Facing this challenge, a first version of a certification scheme has been developed and is being tested in pilot sites. Being innovative in its approach and process, the Homes4Life certification scheme takes into account a large array of indicators and helps raising the awareness of stakeholders for better environments for ageing people.
This webinar is proposed by Certivéa (French evaluation and certification organisation, focused on sustainable buildings, infrastructures, and urban topics). It will introduce the Homes4Life certification scheme and enable the audience to provide their views on the certification’s strengths and limits.
SPEAKERS:
Christophe Gérard – Scientific and technical director, Certivéa
Hervé Duret – Consultant on the uses in buildings and cities, Certivéa
Menno Hinkema – Senior researcher in health care and consultant in health services, TNO
PROGRAMME:
Discover our Homes4Life Certification Scheme brochure !
Homes4Life_BrochureA5TECNALIA, coordinator of the Homes4Life project organised a webinar in Spanish to present challenges and opportunities of age-friendly housing.
La vivienda ha cobrado un nuevo sentido hoy en día. Nunca antes habíamos pasado tanto tiempo en nuestras casas. No éramos conscientes de lo que estas nos ofrecen, y de lo que no. Y ahí reside el problema, en lo que no nos ofrecen.
Ocho de cada diez personas mayores expresan su deseo de poder vivir en su propia vivienda sin tener que abandonarla: lo que nos lleva a replantearnos los modelos existentes en la actualidad.
IMPARTE
Para más información https://www.tecnalia.com/es
Hands-on SHAFE is a project that aims to deliver informal learning experiences and hands-on tools to implement SMART and HEALTHY BUILT environments or to develop BUSINESS in this area.
Information gaps on needs and demands on the side of end-users still hinder the implementation and usage of existing technologies and appropriate environments. Findings are needed to learn how adults can be best approached, trained and advised on aspects of smart healthy age-friendly environments.
The project just released national reports which summarize the research results in six countries: France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Besides an overview on the national context, it describes existing SHAFE products and services as well as their target groups, gaps between their availability and usage, existing implementation support offers and their funding, and examples of good practice for the application and implementation of user-centred services and products in the realms of SMART, BUILT and HEALTHY. With special regards to facilitators who want to start their own company, the BUSINESS chapter informs about SHAFE areas which are appropriate for this intention, main regulation, support offers and stakeholders for starting a business, available training concepts and examples of good training practice. Based on this information, conclusions are drawn on appropriate strategies regarding the training and support of the target groups.
Together with the reports of the other Hands-on SHAFE partner countries, the national reports will be used to elaborate a European synthesis report and a European compendium on SHAFE. Further, a European factsheet will be provided to interested stakeholders, containing information in a reader-friendly and low-threshold style and serving for further dissemination activities.
Links to the national reports:
The measures aiming to contain the spread of COVID-19 could be resumed in the instruction “Stay At Home”. For many people living in poor housing conditions, this advice would not necessarily contribute to protect their health. For older persons who are at risk of severe outcomes if infected by the COVID-19, staying isolated at home could also result in worsen health status due to isolation, depression, or the absence of care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also proven that congregated settings, including residential and care homes for older adults, put residents and workers at higher risk of contamination due to living in close proximity. Such settings are all the more inadequate to protect the residents’ health that many of them are living with underlying comorbidities. The reported figures show that older people living in residential care homes in Europe have suffered like no other group from the impact of the epidemic: on average, half of the deaths related to COVID-19 took place in care homes.
The COVID-19 crisis harshly reminded us that the current care models need to change. Our care policies and services must shift from crowded care residences to the provision of quality health and social care services in people’s homes and communities (see also this article in Spanish in the ‘El Independent’ journal). Such a shift would offer new opportunities to maintain social ties and a personal lifestyle that are core to our fulfilment and emotional wellbeing.
A preventive approach to health should also be reflected in our built environment. An age-friendly housing stock offers opportunities for all of us to be able to age in our communities while maintaining our intrinsic capacity and personal autonomy, as we engage in our later years.
In this one-hour webinar, the European project “Homes4Life” invites experts to discuss how an age-friendly approach to housing is more than ever needed to ensure people can age in healthy environments.
We are glad to announce that will be part of the conversation:
We invite you to join us for this exciting conversation!
Save the Date !
Homes4Life is glad to announce its presence at the upcoming #EURegionsWeek, the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities, to be held 12-15 October 2020.
Stay tuned for further details to be announced soon
Homes4Life is featured in the latest newsletter of IDIH – the International Digital Health Cooperation for Preventive, Integrated, Independent and Inclusive Living.
Our partner Università Politecnica delle Marche – Prof. Gian Marco Revel – is an expert member of IDIH’s group focused on Independent and Connected Living. He gave an interview which promotes the Homes4Life age-friendly homes supporting health and well-being.
Read the full interview in the IDIH May newsletter here.
The whole newsletter is also available as a PDF here (full interview on page 23).