• The TEC-MED project will improve social care for the elderly in Mediterranean basin thanks to the contribution of 6 countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt.
• The TEC-MED model is based on the most promising social care models in Europe and in the Mediterranean area.

Last week, TEC-MED project organized a regional online meeting to present first draft of the TEC-MED Social-care Cross-Cultural Model. The main objective of this model is to ensure the inclusion and integration of dependent elderly people with lack of family support and/or in risk of social exclusion.

TEC-MED regional meeting was held on June 29 and more than 25 people participated, including partners and relevant experts in the field of ageing. During the meeting, the research activities carried out for the development of the TEC-MED model were presented to the audience.

More than 347 studies and 20 social care models were analyzed during the last months, taking into account different ageing areas. In addition, 110 interviews with stakeholders were performed.

TEC-MED Social-care Cross-Cultural Model for elderly dependent people is based on six different dimensions: Subject of care, Health and social care providers, Care environment and Service delivery, Governance, Financing, Technology in order to develop a model focused on people well-being and health and on maximizing the number of people who have a positive ageing trajectory.

After finishing the presentation of the first draft of the TEC-MED Social-care Cross-Cultural Model for dependent elderly people, the following conclusions were drawn:

- Attention to the needs of the population: physical, psychological and social needs, non-marginalization, promotion the inclusion.

- Promotion of the legislation and laws for the protection of human rights of older adults.

- Promotion of the geriatric specialized health care available at a high standard and accessible to all regardless of income or socioeconomic status.

- Promotion of healthy ageing.

- Improvement of care attention for elderly people with centres subjected to quality assurance measures and the improvement of training of the health and social care providers.

Experts discussed the crucial moment the world is going through due to the pandemic and highlighted that the TEC-MED Model must consider how COVID-19 has impaired attention and care to older people. Experts explained that the characteristics of a good model of social care must consider the rights of the person, take into account the person in a unique way, with their environment, family, dignity and culture and how important is the integration of the views of older people, informal caregivers and technical professionals in the development of the final model.

During this regional meeting other topics were also covered. Ana María Porcel, coordinator of the TEC-MED project, announced the incorporation of a new partner in the consortium, International University of Sant Camillus of Italy. This institution thanked for the invitation to be part of the project and recognized the importance of this initiative.

The TEC-MED regional meeting was concluded by defining the following steps to create and implement the Model, considering the relevant role of the stakeholders involved in TEC-MED project to develop a crucial action plan for the validation of the Model.