Innovation: VinclesBCN
Innovation: VinclesBCN
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Barcelona, Spain
AAI Domains:
Independent, healthy and secure living (care-giving to older adults)
Participation in society (social connectedness)
Capacity and enabling environment (use of ICT)
Social activity theory contends that a person’s health, particularly older people, is improved by social participation and physical activities whereas social isolation and loneliness are harmful to health and well-being. While the causal links between social isolation and loneliness with poor health and well-being are not fully understood, there are clear risks that cities with ageing population are going to have increasing numbers of older people who will experience loneliness as their ability to interact with their social network diminishes.
In common with many cities in Europe and around the world, Barcelona has an ageing population with the number of residents aged 65 and over set to increase from 20% to 25% by 2040, although this increase is relatively modest compared to many other cities. Even in a very densely populated city like Barcelona with traditionally strong family and community structures there are likely to be more older people experiencing social isolation and loneliness and more people engaged in social support activities.
As part of the solution to this issue, Barcelona has supported the development of the VinclesBCN app that links at-risk elderly people with their families and neighbours in order to strengthen social care networks. The app can be installed on a tablet or a smart phone and enables older people to communicate easily with their social network, create care collaborative networks, share a calendar and transfer money easily and safely. This should reduce the isolation and loneliness that older people can feel and strengthen links between formal and informal carers.
The VinclesBCN app won the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge prize with €5 million in funding that will enable piloting and scaling up to potentially 20,000 older people and approximately 100,000 people in their trusted social network who will need some training and support to make the best use of the app.
In terms of active ageing, the VinclesBCN app is likely to be beneficial to older people by improving their social connectedness, their mental well-being and enhance their use of ICT. There are also potential benefits for younger people through the same domains as well as care giving to older activities. The challenges of ageing populations in urban environments characterised by anonymity, social isolation and loneliness will require a range of socially innovative solutions to be piloted and scaled up to operate across cities with different cultures and levels of social care provision.
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