Informal caregivers are already a fundamental pillar of outpatient care in the European Union as they ensure around 60% of the care provided to the elderly at home, and effectively contribute to health systems costs control.

Even though the Informal Caregiver Statute bill has already been approved in Portugal, it is important to reflect and debate on how it will become operational in real life. It is then significant to discuss and reflect on: the structure of elderly care and the relationship between formal and informal care; the profiles of informal caregivers and both their training and institutional support needs; the social recognition of this role, its placement in the labor law and on how to guarantee the Government’s responsibility.

The 8th session of the Interactions Symposium will focus on the topic of informal caregivers, outlining their role in providing the elderly with domiciliary care.

The relationship between hospital and the community health care has been described as fragmented, poorly articulated and with significant gaps regarding information and communication flow. As a result, the current processes of interaction between the hospital and the community, especially when the older population is involved, have implications both in the delay of hospital discharge (with all the risks and costs associated) and in the high rates of rehospitalization and elderly institutionalization. This “vicious circle” will only be broken by an effective intersectoral policy of continuity of care, featured by integration, qualification and competence.

The 7th session of the Interactions Symposium will address the challenges of interaction reinforcement between the hospital and the community health components and disclose some experiences in the field, exploring obstacles, facilitators and opportunities.

The reduction of residential mobility is one of the major causes of the elderly institutionalization. In this sense, we must rethink home as the place where people want to live, enhancing mobility, autonomy and well-being. The complexity of these challenges calls for an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. Being that, synergies among different areas and sectors of intervention are essential to optimize security and housing mobility: from architecture & residential engineering and design & digital home automation to provision of care, such as nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.)

The 6th session of the Interactions Symposium will focus on revisiting ‘home’ as a center of mobility promotion through the life course, which requires an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.

In urban rehabilitation, the quality of public space is important to improve social interaction and promote active and healthy ageing. However, there is a trend in urban planning to emphasize building and the safety of older people, and social needs, such as the social participation of older people, are often given little attention. Strengthening the link between the building and security components and the social participation and citizenship components is one of the major challenges that urban planning managers, public safety services and policy makers will increasingly face in everyday urban life.

The fifth session of the InterActions Symposium will discuss issues related to the social well-being and safety of older people in public spaces. In addition, the mechanisms of urban planning that can be used to strengthen their social participation and civil rights will also be discussed.