The DCUM project is motivated by the increasing number of people with dementia in the EU, and the great potential in the use of culture and cultural activities as a new approach to create social inclusion of people with dementia in the local community.For the cultural institutions to be able to contribute to social inclusion it requires special conditions and new competencies of the cultural mediators.The target group of the DCUM project is cultural mediators who convey cultural content aimed at people with dementia. E.g. trained guides at museums, librarians who mediate literature and cultural events for people with dementia, instructors in civil society organizations such as dance clubs and sports clubs as well as health care staff with interest in integrating cultural activities into working with the end user.The main objective of the DCUM project is to create better social inclusion of people with dementia, through training of cultural mediators working in cultural institutions such as libraries, museums, civil society organizations such as dance clubs and sports clubs and i the healthcare system.In order to reach the main objective, the DCUM project will produce 3 concrete intellectual outputs, and 3 partners will be responsible for the coordination of an intellectual output.IO1 - DCUM Toolkit for Cultural MediationIO2 - DCUM Didactic Training Material for cultural mediatorsIO3 - DCUM Recommendations on Dementia in Cultural MediationThe DCUM project will be implemented by 5 partners from 4 EU countries; DK, BE, NL, and ES. The project has a strong partnership with a broad range of different professional backgrounds and diverse organizational forms, all with the same mission of contributing to a healthier and happier life of people living with dementia. All partners contribute to the project with a huge and relevant local and national network of associated partners within the areas of dementia, healthy ageing, research, expertise on learning and education, culture and various cultural institutions.Keywords of the management philosophy and methodologies are sense based approaches to methods in cultural mediation, didactic planning af competence development and training as well as sharing of good practices and mutual inspiration on new practices.To ensure the European added value of the project and create optimal opportunities for transfer of results, the project will be supported by a European Reference Group consisting of important actors within the field of the project, such as experts on dementia, experts on cultural mediation, representatives from the end user group and other relevant stakeholders.The DCUM project contains a range of different dissemination activities in order to ensure broad knowledge and opportunities for further uptake and transfer beyond the partnership. These activities are 5 local Multiplier Events, local knowledge sharing between cultural mediators and sharing of the DCUM Toolkit and DCUM Didactic Training Material to relevant local and national institutions through partners wide ranging network.

"CONTEXT OF THE SEE ME PROJECT The population in Europe is ageing and the number of older citizens is growing. Consequently, projections predict an increase in care needs. Literature points towards 2 main challenges. First, older adults with care needs are susceptible to social exclusion. This is in particular true for older adults with a migration background or in poor financial situations. Second, there are growing challenges in professional care services (i.e., overburdened workforce, budget cuts).Currently the focus in professional care is on the medical and physical aspects of care, from a deficit-approach (looking at what older adults cannot do anymore). However, lots of caregivers are convinced an innovative paradigm-shift is needed towards a positive approach (looking at dreams and talents of older people), and towards caring for social and meaning needs. However, they often lack the competences for this as this is not part of their professional training. Nor does a lifelong learning-course on these topics exist. OBJECTIVES OF THE SEE ME PROJECTThe overall objective of the SEE ME project is to improve the quality of care and social inclusion for older adults (with an additional focus on older adults with a migration background or in poor financial situations). Therefore, the SEE ME project aims to increase the competences of different groups of caregivers (volunteers, informal and formal caregivers) and trainers of carers in order to provide quality care to older adults with a focus on social inclusion trough meaningful ageing. Competences of caregivers should be innovated to ""SEE Older adults"": - to SEE the older person behind the patient, - to SEE care as something more than physical and medical care, and SEE social and meaning care, - to SEE the positive talents and dreams of older adults, not only their needs. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYConcretely, in order to realise these innovative objectives, the SEE ME project will develop new learning and training materials for carers (informal and formal), volunteers and trainers of carers. In specific this is realised through 6 intellectual outputs: - IO1: European research report on optimizing caregiving skills and competences by “SEEing social and meaning needs, talents and dreams of older adults”- IO2: “Education for see me model” - IO3: ""European SEE ME training toolkit: on optimizing caregiving skills and competences by “SEEing social and meaning needs, talents and dreams of older adults” - IO4: ""European SEE ME training course: training on how to use the training toolkit (3 day-course in Italy)"" - IO5: 6 different learning area’s test and implement the European SEE ME training toolkit within their organisations (different care organisations; nursing homes or extra-mural care). - IO6: cross-national evaluation of the learning-areasGoal is really to have a transnational toolkit, which is born from transnational ideas and experiences. And which is tested in the different countries. There will be 4 transnational meetings, 1 European Pilot Training, 6 national multiplier events, and intensive dissemination in order to ensure sustainable use of the toolkit and in order to spread the results of the project. All intellectual outputs will be made freely available for a minimum prolonged period of 5 years through the online learning platform.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSThe SEE ME consortium consists of 6 different partners (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain): 3 research centres and 3 professional organizations. Furthermore, 5 associated partners are involved within the project. These are different care organizations with a mix of intramural and extramural care. Different target groups will be involved during this project and consists of: informal carers, formal cares, volunteers, trainers of carers, older adults (with a migration background or in poor financial situations), management and policy makers.RESULTS, IMPACT, LONGER TERM BENEFITSThe project will result in an evidence-based, user-experienced, user-tested and user-friendly training model and toolkit.Awareness and competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) will be raised on - How to care broader than the classical medical-physical paradigm- Social and meaning needs of older care recipients- Starting care from the dreams and talents of older adults. This will result in the longer term in increased quality of care and social inclusion of caregivers and older adults."

The Embracing Dementia project is motivated by the increasing number of people with dementia in the EU, and the need to have a common approach in Europe towards this important societal challenge. With an aging population and the risk of developing dementia increasing with age, a significant rise in the number of elderly people with dementia is expected in the coming decades. The project supports the European Union’s vision on combating Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia as a top priority within active and healthy ageing by Embracing DEmeNtia.The main objective of the project is to create increased awareness about caring as a collaborative process between the four target groups: Persons living with dementia, relatives, health and care professionals and civil society organisations/volunteers.In order to reach the main objective, the EDEN project has produced five concrete intellectual outputs:IO1 - Needs analysis. It is based on 12 individual and 13 focus groups interview with relatives, volunteers and professionals. Results from Needs Analysis are available in the project and is presented in a research article: Valentina Bressan et all: “Needs, issues, and expectations on dementia care at home across Europe to inform policy development: Findings from a transnational research study”.IO2 – Learning and Information material. The main objective of the materials was to provide knowledge, awareness or support living and dealing with dementia regardless of whether it is a family member, a volunteer or oneself. There are developed criterias for the selection of existing materials into following areas: • To be able to cope with the future• To feel supported and collaborate with others• To be socially included• To understand and cope with dementiaAll materials are available on the Embracing Dementia learning and teaching platform.IO3 - Community Collaboration Concept. The CCC builds on existing material and experiences from dementia-friendly communities and goes a step further providing a concrete proposal, on how to actually build up communities that are dementia-inclusive. By creating a close collaboration, transparent dialogue and understanding between all stakeholders; private as well as public. Therefore, the CCC is developed as a process model, which helps the relevant stakeholders to go from a desired wish to be a community embracing dementia, to actually becoming such a community. The CCC i available in a short/pixie model on English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and Danish on the platform. The entire CCC document with a knowledge base, methods, hand-outs i.e. is available on English on the platform. IO4 – EDEN Interactive Learning Platform. The platform has four target group entrances and each of those are organised according to the structure of materials from IO 2. By this the platform not only brings along information and learning materials for each target group, it also supports common access to the materials of the other groups supporting common understanding and collaboration. The platform is available in all project languages; English, Danish, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. See the English platform here: http://embracingdementia.eu/ IO5 - Policy and Implementation Recommendations. The document gathers all the project’s learning and experiences into a common project summary, and a description of how the partners ensure a more permanent use and implementation of the results from the EDEN project. The partners elaborate the possibilities to continue working with the knowledge from the Embracing Dementia project, and especially the platform and the Community Collaboration Concept.The partners will actively use the platform and its content in educational situations towards health professionals as either qualifying further education or as introductory training for new staff. The Community Collaboration Concept, which is an integrated part of the platform, has already been – and will continue to be – used in workshops where local communities – e.g. elderly homes – want to co-create local solutions for dementia friendly and inclusive societies.The partners have agreed to meet once a year to go through the platform for eventual changes and updates. Each partner will go through the material in their language and SDEO will be responsible for the concrete updating of the website, as this partner has been responsible for the entire development and creation of the platform.ECHAlliance, being the pan European partner of the project, will in the near future try to create a Thematic Innovation Ecosystem (TIE) focusing on Dementia.