Transnational Approach to professional Skills development and vocational Training on better nutrition and prevention of malnutrition in the AGEing population

<< Background >>A 2013 study entitled “Nutritional Risk of the Elderly in Europe” found that 53% of elderly people were at risk of malnutrition. With advancing age, appetite often decreases, even though nutritional needs remain unchanged. When this is combined with pathological, psychological or adverse environmental factors, older individuals may enter a downward spiral of malnutrition that can become life-threatening. Malnutrition is a major contributor to numerous comorbidities in health and social care settings.Moreover, there remains a significant gap between recommended nutritional guidelines and actual professional practice. Key barriers identified include a lack of organisational culture that prioritises the prevention of malnutrition, as well as insufficient staff training.Tast’Age brings together organisations committed to addressing the challenge of malnutrition in elderly. It aims to equip health and social care professionals working with the elderly with accessible resources and high-quality vocational training to tackle malnutrition.<< Objectives >>TAST’AGE addresses the topic of training professional on the challenge of malnutrition in older people. The goal is to provide professionals working around older people (healthcare professional, medico-social professionals, homecare services, …) with an adapted training offer and facilitated access to learning resources through a best-practice digital toolbox on the topic of providing a better alimentation, prevention, and solutions to fight against malnutrition in older people aged over 65. The specific objectives are:- To provide high quality vocational training to better fight against malnutrition in people over 65.- To offer open and flexible access to learning and training materials and best practices to improve professional practices.- Encourage the uptake of digital learning and digital tools in vocational training.- Encourage transnational and multidisciplinary exchanges between partners of different countries and expertise facing joint challenges.<< Implementation >>Following activities were implemented:- Designing the e-learning modules (MOOC): layout, learning outcomes...- Planning and delivery of face-to-face pilot sessions to validate the training modules with target user groups.- Development of a digital, user-friendly toolbox consolidating best practices, practical resources, and operational tools for health and social care professionals, encouraging peer-to-peer learning.- Design and implementation of a communication and dissemination actions to maximise visibility, stakeholder engagement, and project impact at local, national, and European levels;- Thinking of an exploitation plan to ensure the sustainability, transferability, and effective uptake of project outputs by relevant stakeholders.<< Results >>Outputs and results:- Design and development of a training program focused on malnutrition in older adults. This program consists of 7 professional training modules on the topic of malnutrition among the elderly;- Implementation of the training modules through pilot sessions conducted both in-person and in hybrid formats in each partner country;- Launch of the training course (MOOC) on an accessible digital learning platform: https://campus.tastage.eu/login/index.php- Creation and launch of a website (https://tastage.eu • featuring a digital toolbox with 80 resources on the topic of malnutrition in older adults (best practices, scientific articles, infographics, institutional data, etc.) accessible to target audiences. This database was designed to be fed by professionals involved in healthy ageing and malnutrition in elderly, to foster peer-to-peer learning;- 151 participants attended the pilot training sessions in the partner countries;- Increased awareness and capacity building of target groups regarding the risks of malnutrition in older adults.