Italy – Treviso Health and Social Care Innovation Ecosystem is ECHAlliance Ecosystem of the Month – November

We are glad to have our Treviso Health and Social Care Innovation Ecosystem as our Ecosystem of the Month in November. Andy Bleaden, Communities Director of ECHAlliance, comments: “The Treviso Health and Social Care Innovation Ecosystem are a relatively new but exciting ecosystem doing great work notably in the fields of healthy living conditions and smart homes and aging demographics and dementia. We see their expertise in these fields in their leadership of the ECHAlliance Thematic Innovation Ecosystem on Housing & Health. If you are looking for a great partner for European projects, the Treviso Ecosystem is your go-to ecosystem.

What is the approximate stakeholder breakdown of your ecosystem?

The ECHAlliance Treviso Ecosystem spurred from the need to systematise the efforts and activities of all local partners acting on health, social and welfare issues in the Treviso area, North-East Italy. The Ecosystem is thus composed by:

• ISRAA – Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani (public-sector care provider) – Ecosystem coordinator;
• Province of Treviso (local public authority);
• Treviso Municipality (local public authority);
• Treviso & Belluno Chamber of Commerce;
• AULSS 2 – Marca Trevigiana (Treviso area national Health Care System unit);
• CSV Treviso & Belluno (third-sector association);
• IRCCS San Camillo (care and scientific research institute);
• MOM (local public transport company);
• SoftwareUno (private software development company).

Who are the top 3 champions from your Ecosystem?

The top 3 champions of the Treviso Ecosystem are:

1. ISRAA – Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani, which is the public-sector institute providing health care and assistance to people in later life in Treviso area by managing four nursing homes (hosting around 800 residents) and home-care services to more than 1000 citizens in the wider Treviso urban area. Thanks to Faber, its dedicated European projects unit, ISRAA is constantly up-to-date with European and international digital health innovation practices and is able to learn and apply new ground-breaking solutions to improve the welfare of older people in Treviso in partnership with the other members of the Ecosystem. ISRAA is the coordinator of the ECHAlliance Treviso Ecosystem.
2. The Treviso Municipality is also highly involved in the activities of the Treviso Ecosystem by partnering with all other members in the implementation of strategies and projects that seek to establish a shared vision of healthy neighbourhoods. In addition to coordinating the city’s social services, Treviso Municipality is also constantly participating in regional, national and European innovation projects thanks to its Community Policies department.
3. CSV – Centro Servizi per il Volontariato Treviso Belluno, which is a third-sector association that coordinates all volunteering activities in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno with particular focus on providing guidance and support to local associations dedicated to addressing social and health issues. CSV offers administrative and technical guidance to its members and coordinates additional financial opportunities at the local level, allowing the Treviso Ecosystem to connect with and have an effective impact on the grassroots elements of the territory while simultaneously spreading the scope of its activities beyond the urban dimension.

What EU funding/collaboration are you involved with, or you would like to be part of?

Our ecosystem partners are involved in a number of collaborations/projects funded by different EU programs from H2020 and Interreg.

• VALUECARE (Horizon2020) seeks to make it possible to provide integrated, personalized and Value-Based assistance services, improving coordination and use of resources.
• TAAFE (Interreg Alpine Space) aims to develop a participatory approach to make the Alpine space an age-friendly environment and to improve the provision of services.
• NICELIFE (Interreg Central Europe) aims to address some of the major social challenges posed by the aging of the population , such as the increase in neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of the project is to promote social inclusion and the coordination of care for elderly people.
• HOPE (Erasmus+) seeks to provide different segments of the population, including caregivers, young people and health professionals, with knowledge to counteract the effects of heat-waves on the health of older people.
• RESIL4CARE (Erasmus+) seeks to improve the resilience of informal carers, enhancing their role through the use of social networking platforms that will serve as online support.

What are the key priorities and themes for your ecosystem?

It is hard to pin down just a few priorities within the whole set of social and health issues that are at the centre of each partner’s focus. Nevertheless, in the current situation, it is possible to mention:

• The shortage of health professionals, nurses in particular, due to high competition from the private health sector, from other European countries with higher medium salaries, and due to small numbers of newly graduated health professional from local universities.
• Demography and dementia: the increasing ageing trend of the population, with the reversal of the “demographic pyramid”, is particularly acute in Italy and will soon be causing an excessive strain on the welfare system and on the finances of both the State and of families in Italy. Simultaneously, we are experiencing an increasing number of cases of people with forms of dementia due to the longer life expectancy and unhealthy living conditions (precocious dementia is also on the rise).
• Healthy living conditions and smart homes: the necessity to address the urgencies above pushes to consider a strong investment in active and healthy ageing strategies. Among these it is important to consider better living conditions for people (particularly people with disabilities and people in later life) in order to allow for them to receive assistance, care and cure at their home. Housing affordability and energy poverty are therefore urgent issues that now strongly relate to health and welfare conditions, particularly in the current difficult situation caused by the energy crisis, the environmental crisis, the war in Ukraine and by political and economic instability.

What is your primary strength as an ecosystem?

The main strength of the ECHAlliance Treviso Ecosystem is given by the proximity of all its members, both in geographical terms as well as concerning their mission and target of beneficiaries. The common focus of all members stimulates constant cooperation and consultation and has created a shared environment of proactive collaboration around common issues and towards reciprocal goals.

Who are your clinical champions either hospitals, clinicians, specialities?

1. AULSS 2 Marca Trevigiana is the local unit of the Italian public Health Service and collaborates with the other Ecosystem members in researching new benchmark positions within the public health innovation process and the highest level of assistance and care to patients.
2. IRCSS San Camillo, based in Venice, is a research and care institute that provides the highest standards of research in areas such as neurology, neuropsychology, radiology, biology, physiotherapy and neurophysiology with the aim of delivering excellence in therapy and care.
3. ISRAA’s unit CSD – Centro Specialistico per le Demenze is specialised in providing home-care and support to people in later life that are experiencing dementia diseases.