Projects
Projects conducted currently or recently, some ongoing, at ILCSA’s three sites are listed below. Several projects are international in scope and thus conducted collaboratively. The projects each incorporate ILCSA’s four programmatic thrusts: Research, Education & Training, Policy & Advocacy, Care & Support.
Anti-Ageism Alliance Task Force
The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021 – 2030) has identified ageism as a global obstacle curtailing older persons’ opportunities to contribute to society, realise their full potential, and lead fulfilling lives. The World Health Organisation (WHO) established the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism to build a world for all ages by changing the way we think, feel and act about age and ageing. To provide evidence-based support for the Campaign, the WHO in collaboration with other UN agencies released the landmark “Global Report on Ageism” in 2021.
Jaco Hoffman and Femada Shamam (CEO, The Association for the Aged (TAFTA), Durban) were invited by the Fondazione Internazionale Menarini to participate in a meeting in Florence, Italy, on April 5 – 6, 2024, to contribute to an Anti-Ageism Alliance Task Force. The focus of the meeting was to interrogate the adverse impact of ageism on the goals of care, the care itself and the health outcomes of older adults. The meeting underscored the multiple ways through which cultural stereotypes and social behaviours affect the care and well-being of older persons, including their involvement in critical decisions concerning their life and ability to maintain a positive role in the society. The Task Force identified remedial actions for prioritisation in education and legislation to eliminate ageism in health care and society.
The Anti-Ageism Alliance established a working group in the meeting, aimed at increasing an awareness of ageism; expanding research and knowledge on age-related discrimination in healthcare and other fields; and implementing intervention strategies to counteract ageism and its manifestations. It was noted that policies and laws, educational activities and intergenerational interventions have been proven to work to reduce ageism. To create a world for all ages, stakeholders across countries, sectors and disciplines should invest in these strategies and join the global movement to change negative narratives around age and ageing.
The Carta of Florence Against Ageism concluded: “Ageism is pervasive and involves most aspects of our life. We learn early that being ‘young’ as opposite to being ‘old’ is a positive value and this ageist cultural view persists over the whole lifespan. The ‘fear’ of becoming old and the ‘surprise’ of reaching old age are only a few examples of the ageist imprinting that we carry with us. Such negative cultural stereotypes of aging have severe consequences on the lives of older persons, who tend to be marginalized and left out of many opportunities just because of ‘old age’ (Ungar et al., 2024).”
Ungar A, Cherubini A, Fratiglioni L, de la Fuente-Núñez V, Fried LP, Krasovitsky MS, Tinetti ME, Officer A, Vellas B, Ferrucci L. Carta of Florence Against Ageism: No Place for Ageism in Healthcare. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2024 Mar 1;79(3):264. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glad264. PMID: 38419345; PMCID: PMC10902610.
Lancet Commission on Long-term Care for Older Persons (2023 – 2025)
Professors and ILC members Jaco Hoffman, Julie Byles (ILC Australia) and Kiran Rabheru (ILC Canada), as co-chair, were appointed with 12 other commissioners from different world regions to the Lancet Commission on “Long-Term Care for Older Persons” (LCLTC), which aims to contribute to shaping future long-term care for older persons. Lancet Commissions focus on transformational, strategic, science-based advocacy. The Commission’s work will result in a “call for action” for researchers, clinicians, policymakers, funders, healthcare planners, and other stakeholders to challenge conventions and current principles that may hamper progress.
The new Commission aims to focus on providing person-centred long-term care for older persons through a human-rights lens: This is in line with an increasing emphasis globally on person‐centredness as a quality requirement for long-term care provision. While the Healthy Ageing framework of the World Health Organisation states that long-term care should be person-centred, the provision of such care is complex, often misconstrued through an individualistic lens, surrounded by heterogeneity and temporal change, and hampered by stigma and unsupportive environments. A core question is what is needed to galvanise action and to speed up a shift towards the (re-)conceptualisation and provision of person-centred care.
Commentary announcing the new Commission may be accessed here: Pot AM, Rabheru K, Chew M. Person-centred long-term care for older persons: a new Lancet Commission. Lancet. 2023 May 27;401(10390):1754-1755. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00920-0. Epub 2023 May 16. PMID: 37207685.
Sweden/South Africa collaboration (2023 ongoing)
Professors Johan Sanmartin Berglund, Lisa Skär and Doris Bohman from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden visited Noth-West University (Jaco Hoffman), in April 2023, to renew an MoU between the universities, and to participate in a colloquium on “Longitudinal data collection, community care and partnerships: Swedish experiences and Swedish/South African prospects for collaboration.” The colloquium was facilitated by Hoffman and Vera Roos (NWU).
Professor Berglund, the principal investigator and main coordinator of the Swedish National Study on Ageing and Care (SNAC), focused on methodological issues pertaining to longitudinal research generally, including issues of representability, dropout, and other challenges. As a special advisor to the Swedish government regarding ageing during the Swedish EU presidency 2023, he shared future long-term care strategies.
The RuComm-4-AgeWell/ RuComm-para-Envej-Bien Project
The project RuComm-4-AgeWell/ RuComm-para-Envej-Bien is grounded in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) mission to leave no one behind. It is focused on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, with the aim of addressing the UN Decade of Healthy Aging action to ensure that communities foster the capabilities of older people. It aims to generate a baseline understanding of rural contexts and well-being outcomes for older residents.
A majority of older people worldwide live in LMICs and in rural areas. Here, they face challenges associated with climate change, poverty, and a lack of critical infrastructure. The project aimed to reduce the invisibility of older people in the Global South and highlight a need for local solutions in global discourse. The core team was Nereide Curreri (Stirling University, UK), Jose Parodi (Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru), Jaco Hoffman (NWU), Norah Keating (University of Alberta/NWU), Andrew Banda (NWU/ University of Zambia) and Anjonet Jordaan (NWU).
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.
Health literacy and HIV prevention in persons aged ≥50 in South Africa
Research on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa has largely focused on infants and adults younger than 50 years. The study, conducted at two sites in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and a site in neighbouring Lesotho, identified factors that promote and inhibit HIV/AIDS prevention practices in persons aged >-50 years. The project was conducted at the University of Cape Town (Sebastiana Kalula, Tarryn Blouws) and at the National University of Lesotho (Maseabata Ramethebane).
Sebastiana Zimba Kalula & Tarryn Blouws. 2024. Older persons’ knowledge of HIV and AIDS prevention in a province of South Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine, I Vol 16, No 1 I a4264 I DOI: hhtps://10.4102/phcfm.v16i1.4264.
Kalula SZ, Blouws T, Ramethebane M, Sayed AR. HIV and AIDS prevention: knowledge, attitudes, practices and health literacy of older persons in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, South Africa and in Lesotho. BMC geriatrics 2023 Dec; 23(1):1-6.
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.
Activities
Several ILCSA activities focus on promoting healthy and productive ageing, empowering older persons to participate fully in society, and equipping and empowering carers to care for older persons in need. ILCSA’s four programmatic thrusts (Research, Education and Training, Policy and Advocacy, and Care) are incorporated to a greater or lesser extent in all the activities. Current and recent activities, which constitute projects, that are primarily care-related, are listed below.
Rights of Older Persons Advisory Committee
Jaco Hoffman has been appointed as a member of the Section 11 Committee of the Rights of Older Persons Advisory Committee of the South African Human Rights Commission, effective September 2024.
Ageing Optimally Workshop Series (2024 – 2025)
Rayne Stroebel is facilitating a series of eight educational workshops to empower individuals of all ages with knowledge and tools to “age well” in South Africa. The workshops emphasise that ageing be a fulfilling and enriching journey. They take the form of a hybrid model, which combines online and in-person sessions to ensure accessibility. Professionals working in elder care, care workers, older individuals, adult children with ageing parents and mature adults entering the third age are encouraged to participate.
Dementia Dialogues @ Heidelberg Society for the Aged (2024 – 2025)
Rayne Stroebel is facilitating a series of 12 workshops for a diverse group of participants, including older persons, spouses, children, family members and carers, all affected by someone living with dementia in the Somerset West area of Cape Town.
Dementia Dialogues @ Nazareth (2023 – 2024)
Rayne Stroebel facilitated a series of 12 workshops at Nazareth House, Cape Town for a diverse group of participants, including older persons, spouses, children, family members and carers, all affected by someone living with dementia. The workshops emphasised the uniqueness of each individual living with dementia and the dissimilar experience of neuro-cognitive impairment. Persons with dementia have a distinct social background, personality, belief system and physiology, and to this end, dementia is positioned as more than a “syndrome” or a “disease.” A focus on well-being domains, such as identity, connectedness, autonomy, joy, security, growth and meaning, was advocated in the workshops to empower affected people to live whole, meaningful lives. Changing the disease discourse, it was communicated, can foster greater agency for people with different abilities and redefine what “living a life worth living” means.
