La entrada Newsletter #3 FR se publicó primero en moailabs.eu.

• A total of 11 entities from Spain, Portugal and France have participated by submitting innovative proposals.
• The awarded company has been a Portuguese start up with the solution AHOA: Actif and Hapier Older Adults involving technology, science and citizen solutions.
• This awarded company will participe in an acceleration program given by the beneficiaries of the MOAI LABS project until January 2023 and will obtain a go-to-market bonus of €34,000 for the implementation and testing of its solutions through training sessions. co-creation with end users in the project’s living labs.

About the winning proposal

AHOA:  Actif and Happier Older Adults
Actif Age Lda https://www.actif.online/ is a Portuguese start up that promotes and healthier and happier aging process through an online community that gathers older adults and professionals. The platform analyses each individual condition to recommend a personalized and engaging activity plan that includes online and offline activities and socialization aspects. This plan is design to maintain users’ physical and cognitive capabilities by promoting new healthy activities. The platform has several physical and cognitive activities, and it is compatible with the main used devices. It promotes proximity and new relations through peer-sharing classes and forum between users.

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EFPSA (European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations) is a European, non-governmental student organization, coordinated on a voluntary basis by Psychology students. It represents a wide range of students from all over Europe and currently comprises 33 Member Organizations and 3 Observer Organizations. Its mission is to unite Psychology students at the European level, promoting the development of skills in order to contribute to the strengthening of this field of knowledge; to have a positive impact on society and its perception of the role of Psychology; to support scientific and social interaction and cultural exchange among Psychology students, academics and professionals. More information about EFPSA can be found on the website: htttp://www.efpsa.org 

The Conference, EFPSA’s second largest event, is held every two years and attracts 150 participants from all over Europe.

Breaking Walls, Building Bridges

In this edition of the Conference, we will explore the field of Community Psychology under the motto « Breaking Walls, Building Bridges« .

We know that crises such as the one we are currently experiencing have a significant impact on already vulnerable groups, fostering and exacerbating, for instance, social exclusion.  Being aware of the social impact of the pandemic, we believe that this is the right moment to give prominence to emerging social issues at national and international level, to the importance of interdisciplinary work, and for which the contribution of Psychology as a Profession and Science is crucial, since it allows the effective development and implementation of initiatives/measures sensitive to the psychological factors associated with them.

The motto « Breaking Walls, Building Bridges » symbolises our desire to empowerand give a voice to those who need it, to vulnerable and marginalised groups. We propose to take a stand and, through an innovative, creative, multicultural and future-oriented scientific programme, encourage Psychology students across Europe to make a difference, not forgetting the essential contribution of our discipline. Reflecting some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the scientific programme is built to provide tools and encourage students to be active agents of change and social mobilizers. For this purpose, 6 main themes have been selected – Education as a vehicle for social justice; Community resilience; Integration of refugees at European level; Gender equality; Challenging stigmas (in relation to marginalized populations, e.g., LGBTQI+ community, homeless, sex workers, ex-prisoners, drug addicts, among others); Healthy ageing – around which we will focus the discussion throughout the days of the Conference and which will be addressed in different formats, such as roundtables, lectures, project presentations, workshops, and training sessions.

Expected outcomes of the event

By making known the theoretical basis, the emerging needs and difficulties identified in the community (at micro and macro levels), as well as the gaps in psychological intervention in this area, we intend to equip participants with awareness, knowledge and motivation to take these issues beyond the scientific community. Thus, we hope that, through the scientific contributions of this Conference, participants will deepen their knowledge and skills for the design of community projects.

This event will thus be the meeting point for a group of international students and speakers driven by common goals, who will find here an example and models to deepen their knowledge and engage in new experiences. We believe that the Conference will be suitable for the dissemination of the educational opportunities available across Europe (e.g. Master, PhD, Erasmus exchange, among others), combining a consolidation of a more thorough body of knowledge within this sphere with the mobility of students/researchers/teachers.

The ambitions of this event will be materialized in a Call to Action, which will be developed in a participatory manner with speakers and students and sent to policy makers. This document will address the different areas discussed in this Conference and which we consider to require urgent action. In this sense, we intend to gather all the participants’ contributions, reflecting priority aspects at a global level and identifying specific suggestions for action in these areas. The Call to Action will be sent to policy makers, with the aim of being a relevant contribution for a more resilient and inclusive Europe.

La entrada MOAI LABS in EFPSA CONFERENCE 2021 se publicó primero en moailabs.eu.

La entrada Newsletter #2 FR se publicó primero en moailabs.eu.

From MOAI LABS project we fight to combat unwanted loneliness and social isolation of older adults. For this reason, it has been a great pride to be present with our stand and to be part of this Congress, to publicize the relationship between Alzheimer’s and unwanted loneliness. In addition, today, this situation of unwanted loneliness has been aggravated due to the problems caused by Covid-19, which has encouraged social isolation to be more frequent and, therefore, has caused people who suffer from this disease and their relatives, have been greatly affected in most cases.

The main objective of the Congress was to give visibility and bet on the fight for early diagnosis in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In addition, one of the bases on which the Congress has focused has been on the need to advance in research, not only biomedical, but also social. Promoting value propositions that represent people’s rights, including the term ‘friendly societies’ and, without forgetting the important role of relatives or caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s, since on many occasions the processes of this disease hard to afford expenses.

In addition to participating through our stand, we have also learned about other initiatives by attending different presentations. Among them, we have been present in the talks included in the thematic blocks « Loneliness and Rural Environment », « Loneliness and Dementias ».

In the first block of talks, we attended the presentations «  » I stay by your side « . Loneliness Prevention. Comprehensive Intervention” and “Araba a punto, a Collective Construction Strategy to face the challenge of unwanted Loneliness” where needs, problems and mitigation strategies were detected that were very similar to those that our Experienced Experts identified in the first co-creaction sessions.

In relation to the second thematic block, where the importance of cognitive stimulation in these neurodegenerative processes and its relationship with loneliness was discussed, the knowledge shared in the oral presentations is aligned with the contributions made by the Community of Experts by Experience MOAI and the members of the Early Demand Group during the definition of the MOAI Challenges.

During our stay at the Alzheimer’s Congress, many people have come to our stand to receive information about the project, the initiatives launched, its progress and the next steps to take. Therefore, it has been very gratifying and enriching for us to be able to participate in this National Alzheimer’s Congress.

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Les deux sessions se sont concentrées sur la tenue d’un débat sur la solitude et la façon dont les personnes âgées la définissent et la vivent, à mieux comprendre le problème, ainsi que les besoins et les désirs réels des personnes.

Dans la première des séances de co-création, des questions ont été posées pour approfondir les différents facteurs qui contribuent au sentiment de solitude d’une personne et à l’expérience de différents types de solitude (sociale, émotionnelle, existentielle).

Pendant ce temps, lors de la deuxième session de co-création, des sujets tels que l’influence du sentiment de vulnérabilité dans l’expérience de la solitude ont été abordés, si les pertes influencent le sentiment de solitude et des informations ont été collectées sur la façon dont chaque personne gère la solitude.

Ces sessions de co-création seront complétées par des entretiens individualisés où les participants répondront à un questionnaire standard, dans le but de compléter l’étude qualitative avec des données quantitatives. Les questionnaires sont basés sur les recommandations de la communauté scientifique internationale (recommandations consensuelles pour évaluer la solitude).

Dans les étapes ultérieures de MOAI Labs, sur la base de l’analyse des résultats, deux défis technologiques seront présentés visant à améliorer la situation des personnes qui se sentent seules.

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La entrada Newsletter #1 FR se publicó primero en moailabs.eu.