Program duration: 16/04/2013 - 16/08/2016

E-CAPACIT8- Strengthening occupational health professionals’ capacities to improve the health of the ageing workforces

European Commission: Public Health Program 2008-2013

Prolepsis is an associated partner in a new European project titled “e-CAPACIT8- Strengthening occupational health professionals' capacities to improve the health of the ageing workforces”.

The program was officially launched on April 2013 and will last for 40 months (36 months for practical work and 4 additional months for smooth reporting). It is implemented within the framework of the Health Program 2008-2013 of DG SANCO. The project coordinator is the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, NIOM. There are 14 Associated Partners from 13 countries involved in the project. 

The general objective of this project is to ‘e-CAPACIT8’ European occupational health professionals (OHPs) by providing them with country – specific, online educational materials. With them at hand, the OHPs will be given the opportunity to improve their knowledge about the health problems experienced by ageing workforce in their country. Additionally, skilled OHPs, should in turn, be better able to meet the needs of older workers, bearing in mind their health status, and thus provide an age- tailored service.

The ageing of European societies has already become a fact. According to various sources, the share of ‘ageing part’ of EU population will increase significantly over the coming years. This, in turn, will influence not only healthcare and social security systems but also the national economies. One of the intersection at which employees’ ageing exerts its most profound effects is that of employment and health. Demographic changes and the resulting prolongations of retirement ages yield inherent challenges, in as much for the employers as for the workers themselves. This project is of particular importance as it will help respond to many of these challenges by increasing OHPs’ awareness of the problem and providing them with educational materials which will strengthen their capacities to improve the health of the aging workforces.

More specifically e-CAPACIT8 will:

  • Identify and recruit end-users through web-based searches of the most vital national actors
  • Examine materials concerning OHPs’ training curricula through the review of the existing literature and the actual contents of OHPs’ training curricula
  • Develop educational materials for OHPs 
  • Deliver and evaluate an e-learning platform which will make the educational materials developed throughout the project easily accessible to all interested professionals.  

In the longer term, the actions undertaken within the project will prompt the OHPs to more actively engage in solving the problems of the ageing workforce, for example through the provision of support and promotion of workability. The project could, also, contribute to the possible modifications of OHPs’ training or the development of similar, web-based materials for OHPs on other topics.  

Contact information 

Dina Zota, PhD Candidate, Project coordinator: d.zota@prolepsis.gr

Services: Preventive Medicine

Project partners

Coordinator:

Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland

Associated Partners:

Institute of Occupational Medicine, UKΒ
Kooperationsstelle Hamburg IFE GmbH, Germany
University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iuliu Hatieganu, Roumania
VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Partner HR, Denmark
Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health, Prolpeis, Greece
D. Linos Medical Company, Greece
Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatia
PREVENT, Belgium
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
University of Milan, Italy
National Centre of Public Health and Analyses, Boulgaria
National Institute of Public Health, Czech Republic
AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland

Collaborating Partners:

3 from Germany
6 from Poland
2 from UK
2 from Croatia
1 from: Romania, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Boulgaria and Czech Republic