About the project
The overarching aim of this interdisciplinary, comparative research project is to improve our knowledge and understanding of how different welfare models and related policies, as well as health and social care service approaches, can benefit from adaptation in order to target mental wellbeing in the oldest-old.
We will use mixed methods. We will also make use of the comprehensive existing population datasets when identifying and comparing the factors associated with mental wellbeing in the oldest population groups in four different countries: Finland, Norway, Spain and Italy.
During the project period, we will:
- delineate the concept of mental wellbeing at old age by qualitative methods
- dissect the links between welfare systems and mental wellbeing by quantitative methods
- support exchange of good policies between EU Member States by performing case studies of existing welfare policies and systems in the four participating countries
- develop a new research-based tool for assessing the mental wellbeing impact of welfare policies in old people.
We will support development of social welfare models in order to incorporate a change of focus from mental disorders to mental wellbeing among old people. This is important, not only because of the ageing of the European population, but also because of increasing pressures on public finances, within and beyond Europe.
