Willeke van Staalduinen, Grantee of Virtual Mobility Grant
Bio:
My career has evolved from being a practising nurse in psychiatry to serving as a policy advisor to MPs in the Dutch parliament, and most recently, to becoming the CEO of AFEdemy – Academy on age-friendly environments, and the director of the SHAFE Foundation (Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments). During my career, I worked with older adults, either in care or as co-creators of learning materials.
Grant supported actions and initiatives:
One of the aims of PAAR-Net is to actively include stakeholders in the work and deliverables of the Action. We started to identify relevant stakeholders and by involving them in Knowledge Exchange Events. There was a further need to systemise the opinions of stakeholders, such as policymakers, ICT designers, care providers and educators on their involvement in PAAR and PAAR-Net and what they would need from the scientific community to apply participatory approaches successfully.
Testimonial:
The VM Grant facilitated the work to conduct a structured desk research, survey and interview sequence among stakeholders and practitioners to identify their knowledge and needs on how PAAR-Net can support them. The activities resulted in recommendations to the COST Action regarding the deliverables 14 and 15, e.g. the repository of good practices and the scientific standards for PAAR with older adults.