Starting September 2024, the PROCAREFUL Project entered one of its crucial phases, namely the testing of the PROCAREFUL Hybrid-Care Model. Currently ongoing in the five project pilot sites (Croatia, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Slovenia), the testing will involve 135 over 55s, their informal caregivers, and healthcare professionals as formal carers. During the last months, project partners have been training informal and formal caregivers and seniors, guiding them through the principles at the root of the proactive-hybrid-care model and supporting them in getting familiar with the PROCAREFUL platform.
Older adult participants are now experimenting with their customised training plan via the platform, which envisages cognitive games, physical exercise, and personal growth challenges. This customised plan is the result of a multilevel assessment made by a professional via the platform, aiming to evaluate the characteristics of each older person. Indeed, through the support of AI, the assessment allows the predisposition of a tailored training pathway tackling the cognitive, physical and social dimensions of the person. Besides this, very soon pilots will launch in-presence activities, to cultivate relationships and psycho-physical well-being outside the platform.
The pilot phase, which will last until July 2025, has three main objectives: to field-test the PROCAREFUL platform to assess its functionality and make eventual changes based on the user experience, with the final intent of increasing its accessibility and usability; to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid model in supporting the adoption of a proactive approach to health and ageing by citizens, professionals, and service-prover organisations; to experiment the flexibility of the model, meaning its capacity to adapt to the specific characteristics of an organisation and of the local service environment.