STRiDE (Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries) project (2018 – 2023)
The collaborative multi-country, cross-cultural project conducted examined practices to improve the quality of life of persons living with dementia, and to support family and carers – at a national level and for individual families. Key aims of the project were to understand the impact of dementia in various cultural, social and economic contexts, and to support the development, financing, planning, implementation and evaluation of National Dementia Plans in different countries.
ILCSA members Rayne Stroebel and Jaco Hoffman, and Sebastiana Kalula in the early stage, participated in the South Africa segment of the STRiDE project.
Publications that emanated from the project are:
Jacobs R, Schneider M, Farina N, du Toit P, Evans-Lacko S. Stigma and its implications for dementia in South Africa: a multi-stakeholder exploratory study. Ageing and Society. 2024;44(4):867-897. doi:10.1017/S0144686X2200040X
Farina N, Jacobs R, Sani TP, Schneider M, Theresia I, Turana Y, Fitri FI, Albanese E, Lorenz-Dant K, Docrat S, Toit PD, Ferri CP, Govia I, Comas-Herrera A, Ibnidris A, Knapp M, Banerjee S. Description of the cross-cultural process adopted in the STRiDE (STrengthening Responses to dementia in DEveloping countries) program: A methodological overview. Alzheimers Dementia (Amst). 2022 Mar 15;14(1):e12293. doi: 10.1002/dad2.12293. PMID: 35317433; PMCID: PMC8923343.
Breuer E, Freeman E, Alladi S, et al. Active inclusion of people living with dementia in planning for dementia care and services in low- and middle-income countries. Dementia. 2022;21(2):380-395. doi:10.1177/14713012211041426
African Union (AU) Policy Architecture Programme (2019 – 2023)
Jaco Hoffman facilitated a Capacity Building workshop for the Pan-Africa Parliament (PAP) Members of the Committee on Gender, Youth, Family and People with Disability and the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs of the African Union (AU), in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, March 9-10, 2023. The workshop dealt with AU Protocols on Ageing, Disabilities, and Social Protection and Social Security. It focussed on the process towards the domestication within each AU member state of the Strategic Policy Framework and Plan of Action on Ageing adopted by the AU Executive Council in July 2022. Hoffman was one of three co-authors of the core document that was further co-created with stakeholders across the continent.
Drawing on the Pan-Africa Parliament (PAP) workshop, the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, Kenya, in conjunction with the Perivoli Africa Research Center (PARC) at the University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) and the North-West University (NWU), South Africa, subsequently joined up to set priority research agendas on long-term care (LTC) systems for older persons to inform countries in Africa on implementing the Social Agenda 2063 adopted by the AU Executive Council (EX.CL Dec. 1074 (XXXVI)) in February 2020. The research agendas will be jointly defined by stakeholders from academia, policy, civil society, and practice through focused virtual co-creation workshops. A Research-Policy Dialogue – Co-creation Workshop on Long-Term Care (LTC) Systems for Older Persons in Southern Africa was held on May 30th, 2023.
International Alliance of Research Universities Annual Conference at the University of Tokyo, 2023: Longevity and Well-being for a Sustainable Society and Future
Jaco Hoffman participated in the 2023 IARU-ALH Annual Conference at the Ito International Research Center of The University of Tokyo. The Aging, Longevity and Health (ALH) group of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) fosters co-creative research and has facilitated the exchange of young researchers on ageing and health issues since 2012. The Annual Conference was hosted by the Institute of Gerontology (IOG) and the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) at The University of Tokyo on October 16 – 18, 2023.
The conference is held in rotation by member universities. It aims to foster the development of students and young researchers who are expected to play a key role in the field of Ageing, Longevity, and Health (ALH). It furthermore seeks to promote networking and collaboration on global issues relating to population ageing and increasing longevity and deepen cooperation on the ideal image of local communities with distinctive characteristics in each country.
Senior faculty members, students and young researchers from various universities at the conference included Professors Nicolas Cherbuin (Australian National University), Angelique Chan (National University of Singapore), Chen Gong (Peking University), Dr Benedikt Helgason (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), and ProfessorsLouise Lafortune (University of Cambridge), Jaco Hoffman (University of Cape Town/North-West University), Lene Juel Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen), Sarah Harper (University of Oxford), and Matsuya Iijima and Hiroko Costantini (University of Tokyo). The three-day programme, which included contributions from the WINGS-GLAFS program* of the University of Tokyo, provided an opportunity for graduate students and Early Career Researchers to learn how science can contribute to solving problems of ageing and ageing society, to exchange ideas, and to join and facilitate the international network of gerontological research.
Family Care of Older Persons in Southern Africa Workshop
Jaco Hoffman and Norah Keating (University of Alberta/NWU) participated in a two-day workshop on Family Care of Older Persons in Southern Africa, hosted by Professor Elena Moore (UCT), at the University of Cape Town on November 21 – 22, 2023. Professor Moore and her team presented findings on the first phase of their programme, which focussed on costs of care to older persons and family carers. Topics included funding of long-term care services, state pensions and their distribution in households of older persons needing care, and care costs in rural areas.
Hoffman presented work on the care economy, emphasising creating decent care-work jobs for unemployed youth. Keating discussed work on the care economy, which encompasses the work of both paid and unpaid carers, arguing a need for decent work for both groups of carers.
IAGG e-TRIGGER AFMEE (e-TRaining in Gerontology and GEriatrics)
Jaco Hoffman and Rayne Stroebel presented courses for this online learning portal. The mission of IAGG e-TRIGGER is to deliver high-quality educational training in Gerontology and Geriatrics worldwide. Through this programme, IAGG e-TRIGGER participants from Africa-Middle East-Europe (AFMEE) regions gain the ability to critically assess current information and determine its relevance within their unique clinical, cultural and societal contexts. The title of Jaco Hoffman‘s session was “A Greying World” and that of Rayne Stroebel was “Living with Dementia – Caregivers Roles and Socio-cultural Factors”. The e-TRIGGER programme is repeated annually.
ICT Innovation and Older People (2014 – 2022)
A seven-year action research project on the use of cell phones by older persons, conducted by Vera Roos and Jaco Hoffman at North-West University, included some 430 older persons, and involved 24 researchers and 160 student fieldworkers. The project culminated in an open-access book, “Age-Inclusive ICT innovation for service delivery in South Africa: A developing country perspective.”
The book takes the reader on a step-by-step journey into the diverse contexts of developing a technological artefact to provide older South Africans with access to information on services or events in their local contexts. It bridges a gap between South African law and policy frameworks and aims to guide municipal service delivery to older recipients.
The project aimed to address the needs of older cell phone users by obtaining information on their use of a cell phone. Student fieldworkers collected data from older subjects. Intended for researchers, academics and practitioners alike, the book guides and alerts the reader to the requirements, successes and pitfalls in developing ICTs specific to the needs of older people who are challenged, in some cases, by limited literacy levels and reside in deprived contexts: Older persons often left behind in any form of development.
Follow the detailed journey of this project here by downloading the open-access book.
Assessment of the “age-friendliness” of the City of Cape Town
The study, conducted at the University of Cape Town (Sebastiana Kalula and Tarryn Blouws), assessed older residents’ perceptions of the “age-friendliness” of the City of Cape Town, within the context of the community in which they reside. Results showed the impact of the residents’ perceptions and lived experience on their quality of life. Recommendations were made to policy makers, planners and civil society on how modifications to features of the city may improve the age-friendliness of the structural and social environment, and enable older residents to continue to engage with and contribute to society. Completed 2022.