EIT Health CARE and GCOA Recognize World Alzheimer’s Day

The EIT Health CARE Partnership is Responding to Critical Need for Trained Elder Caregivers in Europe

MUNICH, GERMANY (September 21, 2016) – As we mark World Alzheimer’s Day, the Caregiving and Ageing Reimagined in Europe (CARE) initiative, funded by European Innovation and Technology Health (EIT Health), is well underway creating the core training materials to support the critical need for elder caregiving throughout Europe, which of course includes Alzheimer’s caregiving needs. The current shortage of trained caregivers for the elderly is driven in large part by the explosive prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. “Around the globe, 47 million people are living with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. And by 2050, that number is expected to almost triple to 131.5 million,” said Michael Hodin, CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging, one of the CARE partners and the leading global business organization on healthy and active aging.

“Here in Europe, we are equally challenged by the dreaded disease of Alzheimer’s – with numbers exploding toward 10 million over the next decade – there is the economic impact, and therefore the growing need for elder care and especially caregiver training,” said Professor Lefkos Middleton, Chair of Neuro-epidemiology and Ageing Research at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, and one of the leaders of EIT Health’s CARE initiative.

In just three years, the global economic cost of caregiving will reach $1 trillion, and this number does not take into consideration so many of the costs associated with the lost productivity of family caregivers in the workplace. Clearly, Alzheimer’s is a key driver, as reflected in the newly released World Alzheimer’s Report 2016, from Alzheimer’s Disease International.

Today, the EIT Health CARE Campus educational program is being developed to train elder caregivers who will be part of the solution to this European and global crisis. The CARE program will also facilitate jobs creation and, in the process, profoundly improve the quality of care available to Alzheimer’s patients.

Ian Philp, Creator and Director of the EASYCare global system for identifying and responding to the health and care needs for older people, highlighted the intersection of the CARE efforts and World Alzheimer’s Day, “Alzheimer’s and other dementias create challenges in late life for older people and their carers. Through the CARE Campus program, we are developing educational tools for carers so they can increase their knowledge about dementias and develop skills to respond to the specific needs of the older person with dementia and for themselves as carers. We believe the best response to aging populations and the rise of age-related conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, is to regard all older people as assets to their families, communities and society, developing educational systems to help maximize their physical, mental and social functioning and help them to continue to enjoy lives with meaning and purpose.”

CARE has recently issued its landscape analysis, Rising Need for Elder Care in Europe Necessitates New Paradigm for Elder Caregiving Training, which informs the training modules now being created. The modules will be available for direct in-person training as well as online usage. The CARE Campus training program will create new elder caregivers who are ready and willing to be employed, but also become a resource for all those, from family members to community workers, who want to improve their understanding of 21st century elder caregiving in the home, across public and private institutions and throughout communities.

Latest Developments

We keep our members and partners in touch with the most recent updates and opinions in the worldwide dialogue on population longevity and related issues.

Best Practices for Engaging a Multigenerational Workforce

Employers are grappling with a myriad of workforce-related issues ranging from productivity to attracting and retaining talent, but many may be overlooking some seismic shifts that are reshaping the future of work: longevity, population aging, and the multigenerational workforce.

Brazil Must Fight Antibiotic Resistance

The threat posed by antimicrobial resistance is urgent and spares no country - including Brazil. According to The Lancet, 63 deaths per 100,000 are associated with AMR in Brazil and Paraguay, a rate that exceeds the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. AMR-associated deaths in Brazil are second only to cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

More Than Half of Americans are Unfamiliar with Chronic Kidney Disease, Survey Finds

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major blind spot for many Americans, a new survey suggests. The poll, conducted by the Global Coalition on Aging, asked 1,000 American adults about their understanding and perception of CKD. Though many respondents used the internet for medical information and had a regular doctor and blood work done once or twice a year, 58% of respondents said they were unfamiliar with the illness.

We Missed 100 Million Adult Vaccines – Here’s How We Get Back on Track

Like other pandemics throughout human history, COVID-19 has caused profound changes that are still rippling through our societies, even as people are understandably eager to move on. In fact, these impacts are all the more dangerous when they are largely ignored or effectively invisible. The decline in adult vaccination may be one of the most significant, as a new report finds that ~100 million doses were missed in 2021 and 2022 alone – reversing global progress towards widespread adult immunisation as a new standard of care in a world of more old than young.

New Analysis Shows Lost Ground on Adult Immunisation During the Pandemic with 100 Million Doses Potentially Missed

New data shared today by GSK, in collaboration with the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science and the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), estimate approximately 100 million fewer doses of some adult vaccines (excluding Covid-19 vaccines) were administered in 2021 and 2022 than anticipated, based on the global vaccination adoption trends observed from 2013 to 2020, compounding already low adoption rates pre-pandemic.

Going Beyond Applause: The Potential of Caregiving to Unlock Job Opportunities of the Future

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of caregivers – staff and family who provide care for older and dependent people to carry out activities such as eating or moving - catapulted to the front of our collective conscience. The daily applause for front-line care workers showed a high level of recognition for their incredible work and provided insight into how our health systems must change as our society ages. We need to continue to recognise caregivers as essential to our ageing society.

High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023

Join us for the High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023. Now in its fourth year, the Silver Economy Forum 2023, December 6 and 7, will explore aging at every stage of life, looking at the growing global Silver Economy through a multigenerational lens. Linking to the goals and aspirations of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, SEF 2023 will highlight key themes at the intersection of aging at every age, and the Silver Economy.