Active and healthy ageing involves creating opportunities for the population to improve their physical, social and mental health so they can actively participate in society and enjoy an independent and good quality life. However, this is a daunting task for Europe, which in recent years has seen how major demographic changes affecting the ageing population have impacted society and economy. Within the field of healthcare, the implementation of policies promoting “active and healthy ageing” will be crucial to create environments and opportunities for people to have good quality lives.
This topic is of utmost important for the nursing community. Nurses, being the largest occupational group in healthcare, provide most of the direct care and have a key role in promoting active and healthy ageing. The EFN, who is active in this field, has published a report on long-term care compiling nurses best practices with upscaling potential, as well as a comprehensive report of nurses’ added value in the health and social care ecosystems, which is also a compendium of nursing best practices from 35 European countries. It has also published a position paper on care for older people, in which it calls the European Commission and Parliament to take action.
Due to the importance of this topic, the Committee of the Regions Interregional Group on Health and Wellbeing, together with the European Regional and Local Health Authorities, organised an event to discuss it with EU health stakeholders. During this event, Mr Silas Olsson (Director of HealthAccess, Sweden) intervened to explain how to turn Europe’s demographic ageing into opportunities, while Ms Birgitta Sacrédeus (EPP Committee of the Regions) presented the Committee of the Regions opinion on “Active and Healthy Ageing”, stressing that healthy ageing means to be able to do the things you like while you age (CDR 15/2019).