in Reconquista (08/11/2017) – http://www.reconquista.pt/

The Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco has just launched a project to intervene in the aging zones, in partnership with the albicastrense and idanhense autarchies. The initiative is extended to Bragança, Portalegre and Guarda.

The name of the project may be difficult to pronounce (PerSoParAge), but translated means the search for personal and social resources for autonomy and social participation in an aging society. That is to say, that it intends to act in the old zones, creating proposals and intervening in the territories in which the older population dominates.

The project, presented by the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB) to the Support System for Scientific and Technological Research (SAICT) / 2016, also includes the polytechnic institutes of Bragança, Portalegre and Guarda and the Chambers of Castelo Branco and Idanha- the new. The first working session was held at the School of Education last week.

The IPCB explains that the project will last 18 months. Coordinated by the professor of the School of Education albicastrense, Maria João Guardado Moreira, integrates other teachers of the Polytechnic, cases of Henrique Gil (ESE), Vitor Pinheira and Eugénia Grilo (ESALD) and Fernando Leite Pereira and José Massano Monteiro (ESA).

The total budget is 149,849 euros, divided among the institutions involved, shared at 85%, and the IPCB has a value of 92,417 euros.

According to the same note sent by IPCB, the project aims to “develop proposals and tools for analysis and intervention that respond to the challenges of the regions aged in the interior of Portugal.”

The intervention will be carried out in rural and urban councils in the districts of Castelo Branco, Guarda and Portalegre, and in addition to an evaluation phase, it integrates the “development of tools based on Geographic Information Systems that allow an analysis of the resources and their adaptation to the needs of the populations and municipalities. ” In addition, says the Polytechnic, “it has a component of evaluation of the knowledge, use and potential of Information and Communication Technologies by the older people of the regions studied.”

Another objective of this research is to contribute to “the development of local actions and policies that promote the autonomy and participation of the elderly in their communities”.

In order to carry out this project, it is foreseen the hiring of scholarship holders for the development of the fieldwork and the involvement of students (of all Polytechnic co-promoters), both in undergraduate and master’s degrees, within the scope of curricular units of their training, contributing the link between teaching and applied research.

STUDY The IPCB’s commitment to projects in the area of ​​aging is not new. In August, Maria João Guardado Moreira had already announced the preparation of a Gerontological Plan of the Municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, in the last month of August. This plan intends to “define strategic social policies, based on the real needs of the elderly population”. In addition, it seeks to “monetize resources and equipment, since it is at the local and regional level that there are many essential services geared to the activity of the elderly.” To contribute to the quality of life of the elderly and the rest of the community and to mobilize the population to participate in the definition of the future policies of the municipality, is another bet of this plan.

Aging is, in the opinion of Maria João Guardado Moreira, an issue assumed by all. During the “Around the World” program of RTP, the teacher said that “the interior territories have a very heavy aging. What we are interested in is knowing the ways of life and the aging profiles of people. autarchy, with students of master’s degrees in gerontology and health and with teachers of the Polytechnic to make a survey of the needs and expectations of the elderly. ”

Maria João Guardado Moreira also explained that “it is also important to understand how old people will be here in 10 or 20 years and what their needs are.” These data will allow us to develop a plan that allows active aging of the population. We want people to validate our proposals and make their contribution. And this is a fundamental question in the knowledge of the aging of the Portuguese interior. “