ELMI Project

ELMI TRAINING COURSES FOR ELDERLY FAMILY (INFORMAL) CARERS – ACCESS THE ELMI ONLINE PLATFORM– www.elmicourse.eu !

THE ENHANCING LABOUR MARKET INTEGRATION OF ELDERLY FAMILY CARERS THROUGH SKILLS IMPROVING” (ELMI) is a Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project and is part of the Lifelong Learning Programme, coordinated by Asociatia Habilitas – CRFP.

The duration of the ELMI project is of 2 years: 01.03.2014 – 28.02.2016

The project is financed by the European Commission through the National Agency for Communitary Programmes in the Field of Education and Professional Training in Romania (ANPCDEFP).

The consortium is formed by 7 partners from 5 countries: Romania (Asociatia Habilitas – CRFP – coordinator, Romanian Alzheimer Society, Caritas Confederation Romania), Italy (Anziani e Non Solo), Poland (University of Lodz), Czech Republic (European Development Agency) and Austria (E.N.T.E.R).

CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION
The progressive aging of population is a problem that all European countries are facing at the moment. Therefore, the challenge for health and social care systems will be huge and the work of informal carers as primary care providers will remain crucial and will become even more important. Unfortunately, the financial crisis has reduced the number of local care givers. For this reason, the European Commission recommended in The Report on Ageing, the focus on the family, so the care assistance comes from within, not from outside, which would make informal care to become a valuable resource on the labor market.
Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic are three of the European countries where the care of the elderly rely more on family. Therefore, the ELMI project has two aims: the transfer from Italy to Romania of a training course e-learning for informal carers and the analysis of a potential transfer of course to Poland and the Czech Republic.
The ELMI project proposes in this context a transfer of an e-learning course for informal carers from Italy to Romania, and the analysis of a potential transfer of this course to Poland and The Czech Republic, helping them in their role of care and giving them new skills to re-enter the labor market. Moreover, the training from Romania will be recognized in Italy within an ECVET Memorandum of Understanding which will support the mobility of qualified carers. The ELMI project also aims to develop a strategy to support the transition from informal to formal care for former carers.

Objectives:

– Transfer to Romania of an e-learning based course for informal (family) carers already developed and used in Italy
– Development of a strategy to support transition from informal to formal care for former carers
– Draft of an ECVET Memorandum of Understanding to support mobility of trained carers
– Analysis of the transferability of the on-line training tool and of the overall strategy to Poland and Czech Republic

Results:

– On-line training course for informal (family) carers of elderly – www.elmicourse.eu, with special focus on the care of older persons with Alzheimer dementia. The course will aim that informal carers aquire skills in elderly care, allowing them to face the challenges of this role, and also for their ulterior professionalization and integration on the labor market. The themes approached in the training program concern elderly care (nutrition, communication etc.), problems generated by the most frequent pathologies (with special focus on Alzheimer dementia), stress prevention, support from social services. The training course, which in the initial Italian version has 18 didactic modules (60 hours), will be fully adapted for Romania, and there will be also 2 modules piloted in Poland and Czech Republic.

– On-line platform of resources for the Romanian informal carers of elderly people, with focus on Alzheimer dementia.

– Handbook for the Romanian informal carers of elderly people regarding the care process, which will present also the advantages of the training program in order to obtain the professional re-insertion of carers.

– Concept-paper for a strategy of integration on the labor market of former informal carers who want to become professional carers, strategy that will be presented to authorities during a round table.