Europe’s ageing population, rising healthcare costs, and workforce shortages strain health and care ecosystems. While effective healthy ageing interventions exist, their impact is limited by implementation challenges. This project addresses these gaps with tailored, context-specific approaches, leveraging the expertise of experienced partners across the health and care continuum. Through participatory methods, implementation and service design frameworks and cross-regional collaboration, to the project enhances person-centered care pathways with scalable, sustainable solutions to promote healthy ageing in Europe.
Four interconnected work packages build on existing evidence-based interventions. Local communities in four regions in Finland, Ireland, Portugal and The Netherlands serve as living labs for real-world testing. We will first map local health and care ecosystems to identify stakeholders, resources, and structural barriers. This will inform targeted adaptations and the implementation of solutions ensuring relevance and long-term impact.
A repository of solutions will be developed and iteratively refined in the living labs to optimize feasibility, usability, and acceptability. Health equity impact assessments will guide efforts to address disparities, improve accessibility, and reach under-served populations.
Using a systems approach, the project will assess integration into infrastructures, policies, and workflows, identifying enablers and barriers to scalability and transferability. This will lead to recommended scalability and transferability strategies. A knowledge exchange platform will support dissemination of recommendations, best practices, training materials, and implementation protocols, fostering cross-regional learning and policy integration.
By refining solutions and actively involving stakeholders, the project will strengthen community care pathways for the older people and make European health systems more adaptive, inclusive, and resilient.
