The Campus of Los Jerónimos of UCAM hosts the II Conference of the International Research Network on Vulnerability, Health, Safety and Quality of Life of the Elderly Patient this week. Said conference gathers experts from Brazil, Spain and Portugal to examine essential issues such as the importance of full and comprehensive care of the elderly person for an active and healthy ageing in depth.

Paloma Echevarría, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, has emphasised the importance of hosting this conference so that students can experience the value of cooperating with institutions from different countries in such relevant issues: ‘Looking just at ourselves is not the right thing to do. It is very important to compare viewpoints and have an international outlook, being open for research, especially in an issue that is crucial for the upcoming decades, due to the progressive ageing of the population’.

A clear example of this international cooperation is the mutual learning amongst researchers, who will stay up to one year at other universities to further their projects. Gilson de Vasconcelos, coordinator of the Network and teacher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, stated that: ‘We want to see the similarities and differences between our countries to look for intervention strategies that can actually be used and implemented. Social and health conditions are very different between Spain and Brazil. Our country presents extreme difficulties that directly affect the elderly and we want to learn from the experience of this country with regards to this area’.

However, learning is bidirectional, following the lines of Carmelo Gómez, UCAM Professor of Elderly Humanization and Care, who affirmed that: ‘Their primary health care is very similar to ours. They even have the same problem as we have in terms of communication between the different levels of the health system. However, they came up with amazing health care initiatives where the main focus is on the individual, which is basic for them’.