Innovation: Vilgott project

Solna, Sweden

AAI Domains:

• Participation in society (voluntary activities, social connectedness)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (care to older adults, lifelong learning, lifelong learning, independent living, physical activity)

While active ageing is a process that takes place over the whole of the life course, particularly at key transition points during life such as starting paid work or after becoming a parent, it is never too late to improve the quality of life of older people. Older people’s lives can still be improved after they have retired from paid work or after they are living with a long-term health condition that limits the activities of daily life.

Older people are likely to have an elevated risk of social isolation and loneliness that can have negative effects on their health and well-being. In fact, this can affect people at any age depending on the strength of their social networks and perceptions. As societies age it is increasingly important to develop innovative approaches to active ageing for people who are older now so that we can learn more about what can be done to improve the quality of older people in the future.

Solna is a municipality just north of Stockholm with a population of around 75,000 people and is a small and relatively densely area that is part of greater metropolitan area of the capital city. Faced with an ageing population, in 2007 the municipality of Solna, in collaboration with the county of Stockholm, launched the Vilgott project with the aim of improving the quality of life of older people across several areas of life. Improving the standard of dementia care was a priority; all staff at care homes received training and a specialist dementia team was established to support people with dementia and their families in their own homes and in long-term institutional care.

The importance of food to health and well-being was recognised and a series of cooking classes for older people was organised, particularly aimed at older men, to educate and inform participants about the importance of eating and drinking well to the maintenance of health and well-being. The cooking classes were supplemented by a number of food demonstrations and a programme of lunches for older people at local restaurants was organised.

The risks of dehydration and malnutrition for people in long-term institutional care are not to be dismissed lightly and awareness and training for care staff was also part of the nutrition and diet element of the project. Preventive home visits by volunteers organised by the municipality to several hundred older people to increase awareness of local activities and facilities for older people were also conducted to encourage social participation.

A series of social meetings for older people receiving support in their own homes was arranged by the municipality with local voluntary organisations and the association for older people to encourage strong social connections. Activities at the meetings included discussion groups, singing, music as well as health education alongside coffee and cakes. An evaluation of this part of the project showed that it was moderately but not completely successful at building stronger social links and improving older people’s health and well-being.

A supplementary element to the Viglott project, which ran from 2007 to 2012, was Health 65+ that promoted physical activity among older people through a range of free classes including gymnastics, weight and circuit training. It was run in collaboration with the Solna School of Sport and Health Sciences whose students took baseline readings for a range of indicators and monitored progress over time.

In relation to active ageing, the Vilgott project and the subsequent Health 65+ initiative were likely to have positive effects in relation to voluntary activities through the preventive home visits. It promoted improved forms of care for older adults through improving the skills of the workforce in the social care sector.

The cooking classes and nutrition strand contribute to lifelong learning, particularly for older men who may have to take on daily cooking duties for the first time in later life. This also contributes to older people’s ability to live independently in their own homes for longer and enjoy a better quality of life. The building of strong social connections among older people ran through the Vilgott project while the Health 65+ project was clearly relevant to the promotion of physical activity.