1) Can you share some details about the policy context addressed by your Action Plan and on how its implementation will contribute to improving the policy instruments tackled within your region?
The first action is addressing policy Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy 2021-2027. The goal of this action is to influence the policy instrument, inspired by two EU_SHAFE good practices: the “Health Kiosk” and the “Mobile Health Units” good practice presented during the 4th Interregional Policy Learning Meeting of the EU_SHAFE Project in Coimbra, since something similar is already implemented in two Slovenian towns.
The second action is addressing Local Development Strategy of LAG (Local Action Group) the Heart of Slovenia - the umbrella policy instrument is the Rural development programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2014-2020. The goal was to encourage local institutions, municipalities, associations, SMEs and other organizations in the Heart of Slovenia area to prepare new project proposals that focus on enhancing the quality of life of elderly to apply to the Local Action Group the Heart of Slovenia’s call. These projects have better chances to be granted because of the policy change. The EU_SHAFE project with its good practices identified inspired the stakeholders from the Heart of Slovenia area. The influence was on the criteria for selecting operations to include vulnerable target groups, who are also elderly. The criteria were increased from 10 points to 15, which gave more chances that projects devoted to the elderly population could be granted.
2) Which are the actions you are going to implement and how much have they got inspired by the EU_SHAFE project’s activities devoted to the interregional exchange of experiences?
ACTION 1 – The Slovenian Ministry of Health was inspired by the good practice from Hamburg “Health Kiosk”. An establishment of a pilot project inspired to this good practice in Slovenia would provide a more efficient model and people, especially elderly and migrants, would have better access to health care and preventive care avoiding, at the same time, an excessive pressure on healthcare professionals. The goal is to prepare everything necessary for the implementation of this pilot project, which may also include the establishment of mobile teams at national level as inspired by the good practice from Coimbra the “Mobile Health Units” . ACTION 2 - New projects funded, that focus on elderly and enhance their quality of life, within the Local Action Group of the Heart of Slovenia. The most important result is certainly the preparation of a joint project for the elderly "Establishment of a model and services to help the elderly at home - Point for the elderly", which was approved in the Local Action Group (LAG) tender at the end of March 2021. The LAG project was inspired by EU_SHAFE good practice from the Louth County Council “Drogheda and District Support 4 Older People”.
3) On which main financial sources you will leverage for the execution of the actions envisaged and which is the related time frame for their completion?
Funding within action 1 would be through ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) for the pilot project. The Ministry of Health will attend the online presentation of Health Kiosk in June and after that we will know more information.
Within action 2 the policy change has already been achieved, so we will continue monitoring the implementation of the LAG project “Point for elderly” till 2023. There have been two projects devoted to the elderly population that have been funded: the Intergenerational Centre Javorje (61.434,28 EUR) and the “Point for elderly” (59.176,50 EUR). 65% of the budget is funded by EAFRD - European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
