In September 2016 various partners from euPrevent’s mental health care programme started on the three-year project, ‘Senior-friendly Communities’. The accent is on mental health, with special attention for dementia and age-related depression. Euroregional partners are working on this project together with 30 municipalities from the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR). The aim is to realise senior-friendly municipalities.
The Kick-off
The official starting shot for the ‘euPrevent Senior-Friendly Communities in de EMR’ project took place on Tuesday afternoon, 31 January 2017. This well-attended Euroregional kick-off meeting was organised in La Cité Miroir, an art centre in the centre of Liege.
After being welcomed with coffee and tea, it was time to present the project. The Euroregional partners were largely responsible for the contents of the programme. The afternoon started with a word of welcome by Julien Compère, director of the CHU Liège (Academic Hospital in Liege). After this the euPrevent-EMR Foundation was introduced and the cross-border collaboration it supports in order to promote health care in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. This was followed by presentations focussing on the topics: healthy ageing, age-related depression and dementia. The municipality of Roermond (NL) shared its own experience of how they are currently dealing with the topic. The working language for the project is English. Due to the Euregional nature of the meeting, interpreters were on hand during the presentations for immediate translations into German, French or Dutch.
Live safely, enjoy life, stay involved
The formal part ended with a virtual kick-off, which took the form of a presentation of all the partners involved, the participating municipalities and the financiers. During the consecutive networking get-together, attendees had an opportunity to speak to one another.
Brigitte van der Zanden, the director of euPrevent, had this to say about the Kick-off: ‘There we were then, at the end of a successful kick-off, all together on the stage, like one big Euregional family. In fact, you might describe them as the project’s voluntary carers; we couldn’t do it without them. All I could do was close with the words: ‘Stay involved!’
All information about this project can be found on euprevent.eu/sfc
