CU is building a Centre of Active Ageing to support the health of seniors
Bratislava 16 April 2019: The favourable effects of physical activity for seniors, who are among the most passive groups of the population, is something a new project at Comenius University is hoping to implement based on the results of research so far. The aim of the Slovak and Austrian project partners is to improve the conditions for the effective provision of preventive care and support for the health of the elderly and thus contribute to their better social inclusion.
At 12 pm on 25 April 2019, the Centre of Active Ageing project will be presented at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport. The project’s ambassadors are the television presenter and author of television programmes Alena Heribanová and the sports commentator and journalist Dušan Gabáni, who are both graduates of the university and who will take part in the project’s presentation.
The Centre for Active Ageing, where experts combine the latest proven scientific knowledge in the field of physical activity, will provide comprehensive movement programmes under the guidance of qualified professionals focused on the prevention and promotion of senior citizens' health.
“Our Competence Centre will provide senior citizens, all willing volunteers, with a programme of supervised physical activity aimed at improving physical fitness and diagnosis as well as instructional training for them to perform physical activity at home,” says Professor Dušan Hamar, the project's expert guarantor.
“It is extremely important to respond to the current needs of society, and I am therefore very pleased that this project will respond directly to the objectives of the EU’s strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, and that it respects the main objectives that the EU has set by 2020,” said the rector of Comenius University, Marek Števček. The project will run from 1 March 2019 to 28 February 2022.
The Faculty of Physical Education and Sport is working on the project in cooperation with the Institute of Physical Medicine in St Pölten in Austria. Other partners and supporters include the City of Bratislava; the Bratislava Self-Governing Region; the Trnava Self-Governing Region; the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic; the Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa insurance company; the Union Insurance Company; the Slovak Academy of Sciences; the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University; the town of Šamorín; the municipalities of Prellenkirchen, Wolfsthal, Berg , Kittsee, and Hainburg a. d. Donau; SVA - Sozialversicherungsanstalt der Gewerblichen Wirtschaft, Landesstelle Niederösterreich; SVB - Sozialversicherungsanstalt der Bauern; and VAEB - Versicherungsanstalt für Eisenbahnen & Bergbau. The Interreg V-A Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Slovakia–Austria is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.