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Depression is common and is associated with poor outcomes among elderly care-home residents. Exercise is a promising low-risk intervention for depression in this population. Duirng this study the hypothesis that a moderate intensity exercise programme would reduce the burden of depressive symptoms in residents of care homes was tested.

The findings indicated that the moderately intense exercise programme tested did not reduce depressive symptoms in residents of care homes. Therefore, in this frail population, alternative strategies to manage psychological symptoms are required.

The publication is available, here.

This final report is part of the study on “Coping with an ageing population – Learning from good eHealth and telecare practices” – the eCare Benchmarking study, commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate General Information Society and Media, Brussels. The eCare Benchmarking study has to be seen within the global trend towards population ageing. This unprecedented development has a number of socio-economic side effects which are beginning to exert an influence on the way long-term care is currently provided to older people in Europe and beyond.

The report from the House of Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change warns that the Government and our society are woefully underprepared for ageing. The "Ready for Ageing?" report covers a broad range of policy areas, providing a comprehensive analysis of the potential impact of an ageing population on public services.

It concludes that the current British model of health and social care provision has failed to provide older people with adequate care and this situation will worsen in the future due to the upcoming increase of seniors with chronic health conditions. The report also explains how radical changes to health and social care are needed and the Committee calls on the Government to set out a vision and framework so health and social care services progressively change to become much better fitted to meet the needs of an ageing society.

There must be reforms at every level to achieve the multitude of benefits gained from active ageing in the workplace. This is the key element debated in the final report of the European Policy Centre (EPC)-Bertelsmann Stiftung project entitled “Creating Second Career Labour Markets - Towards more Employment Opportunities for Older Workers.”

Carried out in the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012, the research project aims to stimulate debate on active ageing at work by identifying, analysing and comparing good practices among actors responsible at EU member-state level for creating job opportunities for older workers, including governments, social partners and companies.

By giving a detailed analysis of the many barriers that already exist to employment for older citizens, the authors of the final report give policy recommendations to advice on a positive transition forward. Their main arguments are based around the concentrated efforts required by all relevant stakeholders and the dismissal of the popular notion that it is a positive policy to push older workers out of labour to free up jobs for a younger generation.

The report from the House of Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change warns that the Government and our society are woefully underprepared for ageing. The "Ready for Ageing?" report covers a broad range of policy areas, providing a comprehensive analysis of the potential impact of an ageing population on public services.

It concludes that the current British model of health and social care provision has failed to provide older people with adequate care and this situation will worsen in the future due to the upcoming increase of seniors with chronic health conditions. The report also explains how radical changes to health and social care are needed and the Committee calls on the Government to set out a vision and framework so health and social care services progressively change to become much better fitted to meet the needs of an ageing society.

The Council of the European Union adopted on 6th December the Guiding Principles for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, which should serve as a checklist for national authorities and other stakeholders on what needs to be done to promote active ageing beyond the European Year 2012.

Each of the 19 Guiding Principles, jointly agreed by the Social Protection and the Employment Committees, relate to one of the three dimensions of active ageing promoted during the European Year: employment, social participation and independent living.

The Gudining Principles, which are annexed to the Council declaration on the European Year 2012 (17468/12), are not prescriptive. It is a task of national governments, regions, cities, companies, trade unions, civil society organisations and others to make use of them according to their specific situation and challenges. “The legacy of the European Year 2012 needs to be preserved and further developed at European, national, regional and local level, along the lines outlined in the Guiding Principles forActive Ageing and Solidarity between Generations”, recommends the Council.

The European Council invited Member States to make healthy ageing across lifecycle one of their priorities, with a social and equity approach. The promotion of strategies aiming at combating risks factors, such as tobacco use, alcohol related harm, illicit drugs, unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity as well as environmental factors are essential.

To access the Council conclusions, click here

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a specific joint programme (2008-2013) led in conjunction with Member States, the European Commission and private industry. The results of this combined effort are the approximately 60 on-going projects and the hundreds of people at work, that are working together to contribute and to shape the future of ICT based solutions to support the active and healthy ageing of elderly people. The AAL Association has recently released a brochure which contains a number of projects implemented under the first three thematic calls:

• “ICT based solutions for prevention and management of chronic conditions of elderly people”
• “”ICT based solutions for advancement of social interaction of elderly people”
• “Self- serve society”.

Louth, as a part of the WHO global age-friendly cities network, is the first Age-Friendly County in Ireland. The aim of the initiative is to increase the participation of older people in the social, economic and cultural life of the community,  to improve the health and well-being of older people in the county and to show how services and supports for older people can be made more responsive, caring, professional and accessible, through imaginative and cost-effective partnerships. As a part of this concept Louth county has also adopted the age-friendly business approach which aims doing business in a way that recognizes and addresses the market opportunity afforded by a society where more people are living healthier for longer. For more information about the age-friendly Louth County please click here.

The brochure "The EU Contribution to Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations" is a comprehensive document setting out what the European Union is doing to encourage active ageing. The main tools to support active ageing are in the hands of policymakers in the Member States. However, the EU can mobilise a wide range of policy instruments to support national governments and other stakeholders in their efforts. Hence, the brochure covers existing measures at EU level, but also looks at others that are still being discussed, such as legislation in the pipeline and proposals for funding programmes in the new 2014-20 budget cycle. The overall aim is to inspire more determined efforts in all Member States to promote active ageing, thereby ensuring that solidarity between generations can withstand the test of population ageing. The English version of this publication can be downloaded here. All other EU official languages will be available in the coming weeks, also in printed format.

The promotion of health literacy is critical for active and informed participation in health and healthcare, and is identified as a key action to reduce health inequalities. This report presents the outcomes of a rapid review of the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to improve health literacy, with a specific focus on communicable diseases and interventions for disadvantaged populations within the European context. The review identifies gaps in the research evidence concerning which interventions are most effective in improving health literacy, particularly with regard to communicable diseases and studies conducted in Europe. It highlights that further research is needed on the impact of health literacy interventions in the public health field, paying particular attention to evaluating communication about communicable diseases, and determining the most effective strategies for meeting the needs of population groups with low literacy levels, and those who are vulnerable, disadvantaged and hard to reach.

The European Commission has released “The 2012 Ageing Report: Economic and budgetary projections for the EU27 Member States (2010-2060)”, analysing the economic and budgetary impact of an ageing population over the long-term.  In 2010, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) gave the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) a mandate to update its common exercise of age-related expenditure projections by 2012 on the basis of a new population projection by Eurostat.  The long-term age-related expenditure projections provide an indication of the timing and scale of changes in economic developments that could result from an ageing population in a ‘no-policy change’ scenario. The projections show where (in which countries), when, and to what extent ageing pressures will accelerate as the baby-boom generation retires and average life span in the EU continues to increase.  Hence, the updated projections of age related expenditure and the associated sustainability assessments provide important insights on both the economic impact of ageing and the risks to the long-term sustainability of Member States’ public finances reflecting new economic environment, affected by a durable impact of the current crisis, and further reform effort by EU MS.
 
The report, presented to the ECOFIN council in May 2012, details the expenditure projections covering pensions, health care, long-term care, education and unemployment transfers for all Member States. A statistical annex gives a country-by-country overview of the main assumptions and results.  On the basis of current policies, age-related public expenditures (pensions, health-care and long-term care) are projected to increase by 4.1 percentage points to around to around 29% of GDP between 2010 and 2060. Public pension expenditure alone is projected to rise by 1.5 percentage points to nearly 13% of GDP by 2060. However, the report shows a large diversity across EU Member States, depending notably on progress with pension reforms.

This factsheet of existing good practices was circulated as an accompanying document for the conference "Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being of Older People – Making it Happen” which was held in Madrid on 28th-29th June 2010.

The conference was co-organised by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Spain. It was an event under the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being, with the support of the Presidency of Spain of the European Union.

This resumé gives information about research on ‘Restructuring in recession and labour force participation’. This explored the age management practices of companies in light of restructuring undergone during the recession.
 

This EuroBarometer, published January 2012, surveys:

• the overall perceptions of ageing and older people,
• views of older people in the workplace,
• views on retirement and pensions,
• views on voluntary work and support for older people,
• views on tackling the challenges of ageing.

The document is available to download directly from the EC website.

This publication details long-term economic and budgetary projections aimed at assessing the impact of Europe’s ageing population. It aims to enhance comparability of data across countries and the economic basis for the underlying assumptions.

It is structured in two parts. The first describes the assumptions underlying the population projection, the labour force projection and the other macro-economic assumptions. The second part presents the projection of expenditure on pensions, health care, long-term care, education and unemployment transfers. A statistical annex gives a country-by-country overview of the main assumptions and results.

Publication available to download from here

Although considerable attention has been paid to the aging of populations around the world, the vast majority of this attention and related research has focused on higher-income countries.This report has examined the health and health care utilization of the population aged 50 and older in the six countries—China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. By virtue of the sheer size of the older population in these six countries and their share of the world’s total older population, their health status is certain to have a remarkable impact on the world’s overall disease burden and health care.

This report provided a summary of the health status and access to health care by older populations in six middle- and low-income countries, thereby filling crucial gaps in health information and measurement techniques in response to aging populations. These results contribute to increasing and ongoing efforts to better understand the dynamics of aging through cross-national and multidisciplinary research. As the future pace of population aging will likely exceed the rapid speed that has taken place thus far, preparations for an aging population need to advance now in these six countries, as well as in most middle- and low-income countries, to avoid the costs and penalties from waiting to respond.

This article, from Demographic Research Vol. 22 (June 2010), examines how employers deal with the prospect of an ageing work force. Analysis is supplemented with a survey of Dutch employees to compare human resource policies to practices.

Paper produced by Eurostat in 2010 on the regional aspects of ageing (e.g. rural vs. urban, regional contrasts in specific member states, etc.).

Document produced by Bridging research in ageing and ICT development, a project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme.

A report released by the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) calls for increased public education and awareness programmes, improved public policies and greater integration of preventive eye health interventions into public health systems.

The report emphasizes that measures to prevent vision loss are cost-effective and calls for urgent attention in key areas:

• Integrating visual screening and other preventive eye-health interventions into public health practices for adults of all ages;
• Creating education and awareness programs that include vision-loss prevention, detection, and treatment regimens;
• Reimbursing both treatments and preventive eye health interventions to ensure positive impact on system-wide costs and support for future innovation;
• Developing and utilizing tele-health mechanisms to provide greater access to screening and treatment regardless of geographical location;
• Advocating for vision loss to become widely recognized as a preventable health condition; and
• Conducting more research on the outcomes and efficacy of preventive eye health.

This brochure, published in November 2012, provides a broad and comprehensive overview of all EU actions and their legal context in the field of active and healthy ageing. The aim of the publication is to help older citizens to understand how the European Union functions, how decisions are made, and thereby enable them to get better involved and influence the European policy making process.

The guide consists of three main chapters. The first chapter describes the political context and legal framework in which decisions are taken whilst the third one presents the EU institutions and the decision making process within them. The second chapter elaborates on EU initiatives currently being implemented.

The Demography Report 2010: Older, more numerous and diverse Europeans, produced jointly by Eurostat and the European Commission, describes a Europe which has passed the 500 million population mark, with growth fuelled mainly by migration rather than fertility, and a population that is becoming progressively older and more diverse.

This briefing, produced by EuroHealthNet, presents a summary of the key trends and messages, with special emphasis on issues relating to health and the social determinants of health. Following the basic structure of the original report, this Summary Briefing provides a synopsis of key messages and a selection of graphs concerning fertility, mortality, ageing, migration, families, and the early effects of the economic crisis. These are supplemented by graphs produced using Eurostat data showing Healthy Life Years in relation to life expectancy and minimum pension ages. The briefing ends with policy recommendations based on this demographic data.

Publicación presentata per el Año Europeo 2012 de la Coalición.

This Equinet perspective focuses on the situation and experience of older people and on the diversity of older people. To enable and inform this perspective, an Equinet carried out a survey of the work of equality bodies.

The overall purpose is to mobilise and support the engagement of equality bodies in the work of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. The European Year presents a valuable opportunity for the equality bodies to develop their work on the age ground and to bring the issues of older people to the fore.

This guide contains lots of good practice, practical details, and experiences of setting up exchange projects for senior volunteers.

For more information visit the SEVEN website.

There is a growing evidence base which verifies the positive impact participative arts can have on the health and wellbeing of older people, but to date there is no published review that synthesises evidence of the impact of participatory arts on older people.

The Baring Foundation was commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation to address this gap and provide evidence to funders about the benefits accrued through art activities and to support arts organisations to improve their work.

The Roadmap provides an overview of the Coalition's joint commitments in ensuring that all relevant stakeholders will be actively involved in the implementation of the EY2012 and the European Union will do its outmost to complement and support Member States’ actions aiming at creating an Age-Friendly European Union by 2020 through the promotion of active ageing and solidarity between generations.

Cette publication est produit par AGE en collaboration avec la Coalition de l’Année 2012.

Book written by Chris Minett & Robin Minett, containing 297 tips to improve health, safety and well-being. Information and tips available at the Action for Ageing website.

Approximately one third of Europe’s population will be aged 60 and over by 2025, with a particularly significant increase in the number of people aged 80 and over. This will have an enormous impact on European societies.

This was why in 2003 the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, with the support of the European Commission and 12 partners including the World Health Organization, European Older People’s Platform (AGE), EuroHealthNet and concerned stakeholders initiated the “Healthy Ageing“ project under the European Union Public Health Programme.

The aims of this publication are to:

• review and analyse existing data on health and ageing;
• make recommendations for policy at EU and member state levels;
• disseminate the findings and facilitate implementation.

AGE and the Stakeholders'Coalition for the European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations is has issued its Manifesto for an Age-Friendly European Union. This Manifesto presents the Decalogue of the age-friendly society and includes a number of recommendations to the EU and stakeholders at national and local level to achieve an age-friendly European Union by 2020.

The manifesto is available in the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• French
• Italian
• Spanish

Family carers are non-professional persons who provide primary assistance with activities in daily life, either in part or in whole, towards a dependent person in their immediate circle. In most Member States, the lack of a network of close-to-home services often leaves family members with no other option but to provide informal care for close relatives who have a disability or serious illness and/or one or more care needs from growing old.

This care provision, which, often impinges on their family, personal and working lives, can be very difficult for many family carers. The lack of appropriate support and recognition of social security/employment rights means that these family carers may accumulate physical and mental stress that will badly damage their quality of life and well-being as they themselves get older.

This factsheet from COFACE-Disability outlines the age and gender aspects of family carers, and presents recommendations for Member States and European Union institutions.

Mental Health Europe's Policy Position on the Mental Health Europe on Mental Health and Well-being of Older People.

This resumé gives information about research on ‘Restructuring in recession and labour force participation’. This explored the age management practices of companies in light of restructuring undergone during the recession.
 

Policy brief produced by European Centre, outlining  trends in Europe, success and problem areas of long-term care provision, and policy recommendations.