11-11-2019 14:16
On November 5, 2019, at the headquarters of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC) in Sofia, a National conference was held on the topic: "Innovative Solutions in Elderly Care".
The conference was organized in the frame of the project „Innovative Community Care Models in Favour of People with Chronic Diseases and Permanent Disabilities”, funded under the Programme „Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups“, supported by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism.
The project is implemented by the Bulgarian Red Cross in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities.
In addition to the project partners the conference was attended by Mrs. Grete Odegard - First Secretary at the Norwegian Embassy for Romania and Bulgaria, Prof. Dr. Assen Baltov - Director of the largest hospital in the country „N.I. Pirogov”, as well as representatives of other ministries and organizations and representatives of the municipalities in which the project will be implemented: Vratsa, Oryahovo, Krivodol, Byala Slatina, Vidin, Montana and Belogradchik.
On behalf of the Programme Operator, Mrs. Tzvetana Guerdjikova, Director of Directorate „External European Programmes“ at the Ministry of Education and Science, emphasized both the social importance of this project and the high expectations of the municipalities about the results of the project.
The representatives of the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Bergen and the representatives of municipalities from the western part of Norway shared their experience in the use of modern technologies in the provision of health and social services for the elderly. Prof. Dr. Ivo Petrov – national consultant of cardiology, described the first steps in the implementation of remote monitoring of some physiological data in Bulgaria.
The conference concluded with a discussion on the applicability in Bulgaria of the presented innovative solutions in the field of social and health services, and also on the specific possibilities for the introduction of remote monitoring/care (teleassistance)-initially only in the municipalities included in the BRC project, and later - in the rest of the country.