Cooperation action plan in support of active aging

On March 23, 2022, an international online consultation was initiated by the Slovenian network “Central European Seniors eServices Guide 55+” to allow participants to develop their joint activities for the year 2022 on active aging.

The event was attended by members of organisations supporting the elderly, professional forums and academics from Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, who briefly introduced and outlined their activities after the welcome speech by Gyula Ocskay, Secretary General of CESCI. Subsequently, Marjeta Vaupot, the founder of the Slovenj Gradec Health Community Center, and Dr. Jože Gričar, Professor Emeritus of the University of Maribor, presented the objectives of the initiative, which are:

• Supporting Seniors 55+ eServices Guide development in the municipality (local community) by engaging the Health Community Center and the Municipality Administration in cooperation with all organizations which are offering eServices to the seniors. For example, seniors’ association, elderly home, library, educational institution, voluntary organization, transportation services.
• Incorporating into the Guide the links to the eServices for seniors provided by the organizations at the state level. For example, health insurance company, pension insurance company, employment office, banking association, related ministries.
• Spreading the message about the usefulness of the Guide in the municipality and in the country.
• Sharing ideas and experiences with similar networks in other countries to learn about best practices.
• Creating a unified Guide easy to be used at the time when data is need (equal cover page, uniform way of presenting data). Visually the Guides in the countries will be similar, the content will be local circumstances dependent, however.
• Encouraging the publishing of the updated Guide on the website in the national and English language and distributing a printed brochure in the national language to all households in the municipality once a year.
• Presenting the achievements at the Zoom conference Seniors 55+ eServices Guide Prototypes in Central Europe on Friday, September 30, 2022. At the occasion of October 1 – International Day of Older Persons. The conference is organized by Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.

Afterwards, the Slovenian and Hungarian Guides were presented in detail.

The event ended with an informal conversation in which participants shared their ideas on how they could work together to create a more comprehensive, European-level Guide.