Objectives of the IP.

Due to a heavy workload and the coordinator’s continuing sick leave at WestJutlandUniversityCollege, the intensive programme was moved from Denmark to Slovenia. This change was confirmed by our National Agency in a letter of December 8, 2008. As also communicated to the Danish National Agency, our 5^th partner in the IP, Eötvös Loránd Todományegyetem from Hungary, was not able to participate due to organizational changes. The IP in Slovenia has taken place in The Home for the Elderly People Preddvor from April 19^th to April 29^th2009 in the northern part of Slovenia – mainly because accommodation close to the University in Ljubljana was extremely expensive – but also because the location gave the IP the unique opportunity to run a programme about elderly at an elderly home.

The objectives to study have been as written in the application:
1. Investigate and try to develop new perspective on social work, and here also regarding implications and difficulties of demographical development in EU
2. Challenge the students perspectives and perceptions both academically and personally
3. Use a pedagogical approach in the IP which will frame an international and multidisciplinary environment.
The target group is elderly citizens 60 + years of age.
Our aim is also to give the students the possibility to get academic and personal competencies and growth in a multicultural frame using example critical reflection and international perspectives on the topics.
Our programme has been constructed by mainly a mixture of lectures, group work, case work, field trips, workshops/presentations, and independent research groups, cross cultural activities, investigations with citizens and professionals and dissemination.  

Innovative perspective.
The aims of the IP have all been achieved; please look at the evaluations of the days during the programme connected to the topics in our application at www.demogene.org.
All students have participated in the programme. They have been introduced to earlier IPs and the programme education from those IP.
As mentioned above, this IP took place in a home for elderly people; we were there during the day and worked with the staff and the elderly. The citizens at the home have to be 65 years old to be accepted to live in the home. The elderly people living in the institution can be very fit or they can need a lot of help. So the innovative perspectives on social work and perspectives on the elderly are much more in practice at this IP than at any other earlier IP, but some of the teachers have tried to connect the topics from earlier IPs to this one when giving a lecture. The students have the opportunity to observe practice, have a dialogue with the staff and the elderly and reflectionwith each others. They have had a chance to see and adapt theoretical approach of the lectures into real life. The staff was ready to interact with the students and to learn about all new viewpoints.
The manager of the home for elderly was also very interested in a dialogue with the students about best practice in caring for the elderly, especially when clients have many individual needs, ie health and/or multicultural concerns.  
The students became aware of the facts that:
1.        What kinds of challenge stereotypes there are in professional work with elderly and especially in gerontological social work.
2.        What generational interaction and gaps mean on the demographical level in Europe.
3.        How generational differences are a standpoint when the society will create and use networks as a method in gerontological social work.
4.        How generational relations and especially generational barriers are a remarkable part of demographical changes in European context now and in the future.
5.        An important part of social work with elderly is to listen and to communicate. The elderly said that it was very important that the staff smiled and had the time to listen even when elderly were complaining. It is important that the staff know how to talk with the elderly (dialogue) not just to the elderly (monologue).
6.        About working in teams, so that the work and the activities maybe have a multidisciplinary approach. The staff said that they needed to work together with every elderly in the home. In the home you are never alone but you might be lonely – that is a whole different matter. So the staff tries to do many things with a multidisciplinary approach because it will have a positive effect on both the social life and the health of clients.
7.        The history of the elderly is important in the daily work and activities. Many older people in this home bring with them the history of the World War II. They also bring the story about Slovenia becoming independent in 1992.Their country has been trough big changes. In other countries there are also elderly with histories from the World Wars but not a history about  so short independence.
8.        That working with the elderly can be done differently. Here the discussions about Goffman’s theory about total institutions were an eye opener. The agency visits and student presentations contributed to a reflective approach on what is “best practice”.  

Organisation.
The IP has been developed through a partnership first under the Erasmus-program, later under the Socrates-program and now under Erasmus Lifelong Learning-programme. The network has changed name over the years, so now we are called European Network on Elderly Policy and Social Work with Elderly in a World of Demographical Changes(DEMOGENE). For this IP we had an e-mail correspondence about all decisions concerning the application where all the partners have participated. The planning of the programme for the IP continued on a teachers meeting in January 2009 inLjubljana, Slovenia where all partners again participated. At this meeting we planned the programme, accommodation, transportation, to work at the home for the elderly, field trips, lectures, workshops and so on. The more practical assignments were taken care of by the local teacher/partner in Slovenia. We have all had email correspondence about the programme. During the IP all teachers have had tasks in the programme. We also had 5 teachers meeting during the IP. These meetings also helped in giving ownership to all participants in the IP.  
The selection of students was up to the participating university to make. The Danish students were picked out from some perspectives: Did they already have ECTS points, were they at least at the 5^th semester. The Finnish students belonged to a group of students who study a 25 ECTS point unit of gerontological social work. They had passed at least 3 years of study of social work in the University of Turku. The German students: Interest in international and intercultural work and interest in social, gerontological topics. German students also had to have a good knowledge of the English Language. French students were elected for their link with the topic (practice field in France with Elderly and professional final thesis) and their skills in foreign languages. The Slovenian students were picked out from the group of students in the last year of their study according to their own personal interest for the topic of social work with the older people, interest for getting new knowledge in the international environment and sharing their experiences in the intensive programme.

Outputs.
The outputs of this IP were; a very dynamic programme, workshops by students, field trips, national workgroups and international workgroups, welcome maps, evaluations, logbook by the students to be seen on the website. Logbook written by the students in both national groups and international groups. Each national group wrote one day and each student was in an international group writing about one day also. Photos from the IP to be seen on the website. This IP in Slovenia will be promoted in different Slovenian news papers:
1.        Gorenjski Glas (news paper of Gorenjska region)
2.        Klas (news paper in Home for older people Preddvor)
3.        Viharnik (news paper of municipality Preddvor) .
Another output is the website itself (www.demogene.org).  One of the students from Slovenian delegation in 2008 joined the IP this year. Her presence was very important because she gave us feedback that IP is not only 10 days of activity, but has implications on students’ lives on a more general level.
The students were given 3 ECTS points for participating. They were all given a certificate to show their participation. The certificate was given to 4 students from Finland, 4 students from France, 5 students from Denmark, 5 students from Slovenia and 6 students from Germany, 24 students in all.

Impact.
This IP has been a success which is shown by the evaluations both from students and from the teachers. To stay at the home for the elderly and getting the environment under your skin, meeting with the staff/professionals and seeing and talking with the elderly almost every day was very positive.  It gave the students the possibility to get good ideas about good practice in order to discuss new ideas for the future social work with elderly people. The IP gave the students very much to reflect on and they were able to have a more critical approach to the social work with elderly both in Slovenia and in their own countries. All the participations in this IP stayed at the same place near the home for the elderly, which helped to stimulate the relations across nations, languages and culture differences. There was a positive and open minded atmosphere among all participations, so everyone had a new intercultural experience and respect for each other. Friendships were made and this Facebook generation will properly continue the new relations and debate about social work with elderly.  
The teachers evaluated the outcome of the IP daily and modified the programme if necessary and made a kind of logbook even though it was an IP for the students. The students also made a logbook. Their material can be seen on the website. We believe that this IP has made relationships across students and colleagues in Europe for the possibility to discuss and develop practice and working with the elderly in Europe.
10 working days are many days – perhaps too many. An IP can be very intense and sometimes one does need time for personal reflection and abstraction during the day!

Evaluation and dissemination.
Both students and teachers have already made an evaluation during the IP. The material (logbook, presentations, photos and so on) is on the website and can be considered as evaluation material.
There has also been evaluation on forms which has both a qualitative part and a quantities part. Please see attachment 1 “Students’ Evaluation of Intensive Programme ” and attachment 2 “Teachers’ Evaluation”.

The joined dissemination of the IP 2009 inSlovenia will be the website. The website will be mentioned and presented for others at the different Partners institutions. The IP will also be mentioned in three newspapers as mentioned earlier. At UC Vest, Esbjerg the IP 2009 was presented to other organisations with interest for the topic, students and teachers on May 26^th and the students will benefit from their knowledge when taking part in the class about the elderly in their 6^th semester. There will be a link to www.demogene.org from the website of faulty of social science at the University College West Jylland, Esbjerg like on  the other Universities websites as well. In the University of Turku the material and experiences about the IP in Slovenia will be in use next year in the studies of gerontological social work. Some students will benefit from the experiences when doing their thesis too. The transfer of the results, findings and experiences during the 2009 IP in Slovenia is at the following manner for the German students: 1.The students will write an article on the IP for the newspaper "EFH NEWS" of the University of Applied Sciences. 2. The Students will make a documentary about the IP. 3. The experience of the IP will be presented to students as part of a seminar on “Demographic Changes in Europe and its impact on the work with elderly people". 4. The experience of the IP in the local area networks in the elderly work and the migration work with experts from practice involved. 5. A general presentation of the IP will be held in November 2009 at the International Day of the University for the public. The French: On Friday 29 of May, the focus was put on European social work in IRTS de Lorraine. Students presented to their fellow students and teachers the results of this IP and organized a reflection about professional mobility and social workers’ skills. An interview of the students was published in the newspaper of the school in social work. The delegation of Slovenian students wrote an article about the IP for Journal Socialno delo - an academic periodical journal published by the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work. In October 2009 the same group will present the IP at “Traditional”, the 9th Festival on retirement age in Ljubljana.
It is important to present the outputs of the IP also to the other students; therefore the group of Slovenian students made a report in May for the whole group of students in the 4th year of study at the Faculty of Social Work Ljubljana.

The students have used Facebook with fellow students in their home countries every day during the IP to reflect on the impact.

Contribution to the priorities for IP as published in the Call for proposals 2008.
The IP “Elderly and social work in the perspective of demographical change and international exchange” contributed to the main objectivities as well as to the specific European priorities set out in the call for proposals 2008.  The key words mentioned in this IP have been a frame to all lectures, group works and visits during the IP. Especially international solidarity has been a common context. Cooperation with local institution has been new approach and has given innovative perspectives on the key words.
The programme was set up to bring focus on good practice, multidisciplinary approach, challenges with demographic changes and solidarity between generations. The IP has worked at many levels with these priorities both during the IP and with the website, so that the dissemination of knowledge and new ideas will continue in IP-partners’ home countries.
This IP was also multidisciplinary in the extent that students, teachers, staff and the elderly met each others, worked together, discussed and developed new ideas and approaches for working with the target group.
This IP may be relevant at all levels of education but particularly within the bachelor programme and the master programme.
All activities during the intensive programme have contributed to improve by the students new professional skills in the frame of intergenerational solidarity and professional mobility in a European context. The knowledge of demographical changes have been developed by means of lecures. Informal meetings and organised activities have permitted professionals, teachers, students and elderly to teach mutually in an intellectual and emotional cooperation. The present intensive programme ends with this seminar. Partners do not have the possibility/man power to apply for a new IP. However, seeing now the interest which the theme arose in other partner institutions at other European Universities (Nederland, Belgium, Spain) new working tracks could be studied in the future: supporting the present network by Erasmus teachers mobility, developing an e-learning module about gerontology, gerontological social work and social science thanks to another European Program (Leonardo, Grundtvig), organising thematic days within the universities of the network, etc.