ILC the Netherlands (NL) is involved in several research projects and activities in the field of care, welfare, employment and participation. With everything we do we want to stimulate healthy and active ageing (longevity). Many older persons want, even when they are vulnerable, to be responsible for their own (quality of) life. Initiatives have arisen in which older persons jointly organise housing, care and welfare themselves, to meet their needs. ILC-NL is involved in the development of such initiatives and encourages a more prominent place of self-organizations on the social agenda and in the debate on future care for older persons. A big part of the current generation of 60+ is still employed or involved in voluntary activities; not only motivated by financial benefits but also because they want to provide a meaningful contribution to society. The retirement age, for both employees and self-employed persons, is still rising. This has consequences for people, business and society.
Below you will find some projects and activities in which ILC-NL and Leyden Academy are involved.
Age-friendly cities in the Netherlands
The Dutch Council for Medical Research (ZonMw) granted a meta-study to Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing and ILC the Netherlands, to synthesize and share knowledge developed in 110 local care and support networks for older people throughout the country. The local networks were composed of healthcare and welfare professionals, and sometimes also older people and organizations such as municipalities, housing corporations, social entrepreneurs, artists, and architects. Action researchers used artistic and participatory methods in light of the question ‘How do you work together with different parties such as healthcare, welfare, housing, public space, volunteers and older people themselves?’
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Silver Starters
Silver Starters is a blended educational programme, encouraging people over 50 to start their own business, thus enabling an active lifestyle, increasing employability and reducing risks of financial vulnerability and ageism. The programme combined face-to-face events with adaptive personalized online learning, and included support of peers, business coaches and top experts. The programme was partly funded by EIT Health, and organised by Leyden Academy, Aegon, Medical University Lodz, University of Naples Federico II and Institute Pedro Nunes. The course was succesfully organised in the Netherlands (in 2019 and 2021), Poland, Portugal and Italy and will again be organised in the Netherlands in 2022.
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Whitepaper series
Leyden Academy and Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement reflected on retirement from different academic angles in several whitepapers: Why do we retire? (December 2018) and Health and retirement (June 2019). In the papers that will follow, the focus will be o the perspectives of well-being and the image of retirement.
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Wij & corona
It is a strange, uncertain and frightening time, especially for healthcare organizations and older people. The corona virus largely freezes public life. Especially the measures to keep distance from each other and to stay at home drastically changes our lives. How do seniors in the Netherlands experience these exceptional times? What do they worry about, what gives them hope and comfort, how do they spend the day? At the Dutch platform Wij & corona (translated into Us & corona) we collect their stories and give them a stage to share their experiences. The stories provide distraction, recognition and guidance.
Art for seniors health and well-being
There is growing evidence for the positive impact of arts and culture on the health and social well-being of senior adults. Studies show that art-based interventions can have a positive effect on an individual, interpersonal, and societal level. But the evidence for effectiveness is still fragmented. Moreover, there is a lack of appropriate research on and evaluation of the implementation of arts-based interventions for seniors. Filling these gaps, in this two-year research project, Leyden Academy and Amsterdam UMC have evaluated the impact, implementation, and sustainability of 15 art-based initiatives and 4 arts-programs for older people in the Dutch long-term care setting.