Senior Friendly Communities: Designing an approach for cross-border exchange of public health policy.

Communities are generally responsible for creating health policies for people with dementia, people with late-life depression and informal caregivers. So far, the exchange of knowledge and best practices on older people's public health between communities has remained limited, especially across borders. The cross-border Interreg Senior Friendly Communities (SFC) approach focuses on older people's public health in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine, a border region of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It aims at supporting communities to promote healthy ageing, especially for people with dementia, people with late-life depression and informal caregivers. It makes use of the WHO's frameworks of Active and Healthy Ageing, with the pillars health, participation and security. The methodology of the SFC approach consists of a five-step approach: (1) creating an infrastructure for the SFC project (2); including communities (3); baseline assessments in the participating communities (4); creating an activity buffet of a variety of activities promoting older people's wellbeing; and (5) implementing the activities, conducting post-implementation assessments to measure the impact of SFC and creating a sustainability plan for communities to continue on this path. This paper discusses this five-step SFC approach that aims to address the limited use of cross-border exchange of health policies and best practices. It can serve as a guideline for other regions that deem the cross-border exchange of health policy valuable.

Perspectives From Municipality Officials on the Adoption, Dissemination, and Implementation of Electronic Health Interventions to Support Caregivers of People With Dementia: Inductive Thematic Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Very few evidence-based electronic health (eHealth) interventions for caregivers of people with dementia are implemented into practice. As part of a cross-border collaboration focusing on dementia and depression in older people, two eHealth interventions for caregivers of people with dementia ("Myinlife" and "Partner in Balance") were adopted by nine municipalities in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to (1) identify determinants for the implementation of eHealth interventions for caregivers of people with dementia in a municipality context and (2) formulate implementation strategies for these interventions. METHODS: Eight municipality officials were interviewed using open-ended, semistructured interviews about their background, thoughts on the implementation of the intervention, recommended strategies, and thoughts on eHealth in general. One additional municipality discontinued the implementation project and submitted answers to the interview questions via email. The interviews were transcribed and independently analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The interviews provided information on the perspectives of municipality officials on implementing eHealth for caregivers of people with dementia in their local communities. Key findings from the inductive thematic analysis included the importance of face-to-face interviews in developing tailor-made implementation plans, the need for regular meetings, the enthusiasm of municipality officials to implement these interventions, the need for long-term sustainability planning through collecting data on the required resources and benefits, and the effect of name brand recognition in adoption. CONCLUSIONS: The findings contribute toward filling the previously identified gap in the literature on the implementation context of eHealth interventions for caregivers of people with dementia. Municipality officials' views indicated which implementation determinants they expected would influence the adoption, dissemination, and future implementation of eHealth interventions for caregivers of people with dementia in a municipal context. These insights were applied to tailored implementation strategies to facilitate the future implementation of interventions such as Myinlife and Partner in Balance.

Сообщества, дружелюбные по отношению к пожилым лицам, в Маасо-Рейнском Еврорегионе: улучшение жизни людей, страдающих от деменции и депрессии пожилого возраста: информационный обзор по передовому опыту

Маас-Рейнский Еврорегион приступил к усилению роли местных муниципалитетов в целях поддержки активного и здорового старения в дружелюбных по отношению к пожилым гражданам сообществах, с особым акцентом на деменции и депрессии, связанной с пожилым возрастом. Проект дружелюбных к пожилым гражданам сообществ включает обучение локальных лиц, определяющих политику, в области разработки стратегии, локальных вмешательств в сфере общественного здравоохранения, межсекторальных действий и трансграничного сотрудничества, новых ролей общественного персонала, подходов к медико-санитарной помощи и благополучию, ориентированных на человека, и внедрении решений в области информационных технологий. Проект может быть индивидуализирован в зависимости от потребностей сообществ, и вдохновил местные власти на предоставление большего числа вмешательств для пациентов с деменцией и депрессией пожилого возраста.

Senior friendly communities in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion: improving the lives of people with dementia and old-age depression: good practice brief

The Meuse-Rhine Euroregion has embarked on strengthening the role of local municipal authorities to support active and healthy ageing in senior friendly communities paying special attention to dementia and old-age depression. The Senior Friendly Communities Project has included training of local policy-makers in strategy development, local public health interventions, intersectoral action and cross-border collaboration, new roles for community personnel, people-centred approaches to care and well-being, and implementing information technology solutions. The Project can be tailored to the needs of communities and has inspired local authorities to provide more interventions for dementia and old-age depression.