Learning Together, Working Together

Partly due to the transitions taking place in long-term care, elderly care is not yet being provided as it should in some areas and not all elderly people are receiving the appropriate support. On the one hand, this requires visionary administrators and changes to policy. On the other hand, professionals themselves can become part of the solution, too. They need to learn to think differently, to respond more adequately to the needs and desires of the elderly and support autonomy, and to learn to use technological tools and the social network. This means going beyond the standard solutions by creatively establishing a personal care plan that is more comprehensive than the professional’s own field of speciality.

Meeting the personal needs and desires of the elderly requires an innovative curriculum, developed in close collaboration with elderly people with hands-on experience in the areas of care, housing and well-being. This educational reform follows these main points:

• Independence and initiative from students and course participants;
• The elderly, professionals and students work together, both within the educational reform and the education;
• Experience-based learning;
• Blended learning – a combination of digital and in-person education that involves the use of different didactic concepts.

As part of their graduation, students are conducting an explorative study into the needs of (fellow) students. Next to this, the structure of a student organisation that aims to support elderly people is developed in a minor project.