Italian National Institute of Health and Science on Aging

Full name

I.N.R.C.A. Istituto Nazionale di Riposo e Cura per Anzian

About

INRCA (Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per Anziani) is a national public organisation in charge of:

  1. Providing health care to older people by means of its hospital and residential care facilities located in different regions;

  2. Carrying out research on elder care and ageing related issues, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Health.

These tasks are carried out mainly through its interdisciplinary Gerontological Research Department, which includes different centres specialised on clinical, socio-economic and biological research. There are also an internal unit for biometrics and statistics and an internal unit for psycho-social gerontology. Administrative tasks are accomplished by the staff belonging to the department of financial and administrative management, which has accumulated large experience in previous EU-funded projects (partly also featuring INRCA in the role of coordinator).

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of INRCA’s mission, its research activity aims institutionally at:

  • Promoting well-being in older people and their family carers;

  • Implementing and monitoring support services and policies addressing the needs of the older population, especially if frail and disabled.

Through its research department, INRCA has been involved as national representative for Italy in several European and international projects on older people on topics such as: active ageing and older workers; quality of care work, including issues related to migrant care workers; older people and quality of life in later age; family care of the dependent elderly; independent living in different fields of life fields, including outdoor; mobility and technological innovations for dependent citizens; long life learning.

Thanks to the involvement in many European and international projects, INRCA has established longstanding contacts with older people’s and users’ organizations at a national and European level, such as:

  • AGE – Older People’s Platform;

  • Alzheimer Europe;

  • European Federations of Trade Unions of Retired Persons;

  • European Associations for the Rights of Ill Persons.

Key contacts

Dr Giovanni Lamura

Other contacts:

Dr Fiorella Marcellini

Giovanni Lamura graduated in Economics at the Ancona University (Italy) in 1990, and obtained his PhD degree in "Life course and social policy" at the University of Bremen (Germany) in 1995. Since then he has been working at the Department of Gerontological Research of the Italian National Research Centre on Ageing (INRCA), where he has gained experience in international research projects in following fields: family care of the elderly; reconciliation of professional and caring responsibilities; migrant care workers; quality of life and well-being in older age; prevention of elder abuse and neglect; long term care; older workers.

In July 2006 – September 2007 Dr Giovanni was visiting researcher for one year at the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf, Institute of Medical Sociology, Hamburg (Germany), to work on data collected within the EUROFAMCARE project on “Supporting services for family carers of older people in Europe”. Currently he is involved in following cross-national research projects: “ABUEL: a multinational prevalence study on elder abuse”; “ASPA” (Activating Senior Potential in an Ageing Europe); “Care@work” (on the reconciliation of employment and elder care, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation); “EURHOMAP” (aimed at mapping home care services in Europe); and “Futurage” (a coordinated action aiming at outlining a “road-map” for future research on ageing in Europe).

Major research projects

  • "Carers of Older People in Europe" (C.O.P.E.), funded by the EU within the 4th FP in 1998- 2001 (coordinator: Dr. Ian Philp, University of Sheffield, UK);

  • "Geriatric Assessment Technology Training" (G.A.T.T.), funded by the EU within the 5th FP in 1999-2001 (coordinator: Dr. Ian Philp, University of Sheffield, UK);

  • "An Admission Case-Mix System for Elderly Patients, plus a standardised method of recording hospital outcome" (ACMEPLUS), funded by the EU within the 5th FP in 2000-2003 (coordinator: Dr. Gwyn Seymour, University of Aberdeen, Scotland);

  • "Extending Quality of Life in Old Age" (EQUAL: contract n. QLK6-CT-2001-301688), funded by the EU within the 5th FP in 2001-2002 (coordinator: Prof. Alan Walker, University of Sheffield, UK);

  • "Ageing Well: a European Study on Adult Well-being” (ESAW), funded by the EU within the 5th FP in 2002-2003 (coordinator: Prof. Clare Wenger, University of Bangor, Wales, UK);

  • "Contributing to Equality from Independent Living" (CEIL), funded by the EU Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs within the Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination 2000-2006, call for proposal VP/2001/12-PHASE II (Coordinators: Juan José Maraña, AIES, Spain, and Adolf Ratzka, Institute for Independent Living, Sweden);

  • “Services for supporting family carers of elderly people in Europe: characteristics, coverage and usage” (EUROFAMCARE), funded by the EU within the 5th FP in 2003-2005 (coordinator: Dr. Hanneli Döhner, University of Hamburg, Germany);

  • "Pan-European Forum for the Education of the Elderly” (PEFETE), funded by the EU in 2003-2006 within the “Grundtvig 4 Programme” (coordinator: Odyssee, The Netherlands);

  • "Employment Initiatives for an Ageing Workforce", funded by the European Fondation for improvement life and work conditions, in 2005-2007 (coordinator: Dr. Gerd Naegele, TU Dortmund University, Germany);

  • "Mapping Professional Home Care in Europe" (EURHOMAP), funded by the EU in 2007-2010, Programme of Community action in the field of Public Health (coordinator: Wienke Boerma, Project Leader at NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research );

  • "Activating Senior Potential in Ageing Europe" (ASPA), funded by the EU within the 7th FP in 2008-2011, Programme of Cooperation Programme in Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities (coordinator: Prof. Joop Schippers Utrecht University);

  • "Literature review on high quality care for the elderly and the prevention of older abuse" funded by European Commission. 2007-2008;

  • "Public Health Action for a Safer Europe" PHASE, Public Health Programme 2006, European Commission ed EuroSafe (European Association for Injuries Prevention and Safety Promotion, Amsterdam). 2007-2009;

  • "Elder Abuse: A multinational prevalence survey", ABUEL, funded by EU "Public Health". 2008-2010;

  • "FUTURAGE: A definitive roadmap for ageing research in Europe": funded by the EU within the 7th FP, Coordinator: Prof. Alan Walker, University of Sheffield (UK);

  • "Reconciliation of employment and elder care": funded by Volkswagen (Germania) and coordinated by TU Dortmund University (Dr. Monika Reichert) 2008-2010;

  • Measures to support social inclusion of the elderly, funded by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and coordinated by TU Dortmund University (Dr. Eckart Schnabel) 2009-2010.

INRCA website