WHOSEFVA, a two-year project co-funded by the European Commission under the Daphne programme, aims to address the barriers and gaps which exist in healthcare settings to effectively support elderly women victims of abuse. The WHSOEFVA project will be implemented in six partner countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia and the UK. The coordination of the project is conducted by Women’s Support and Information Centre in Estonia, with guidance and input from Finnish expert on elder abuse and VoiVa Coop’s chairwoman Sirkka Perttu.
One year after the launch and Kick Off Meeting of the WHOSEFVA Project in Greece, project partners gathered in Vienna, Austria from 1 -3 March 2018 to share and discuss key results and outputs of the project to date. Since the start of WHOSEFVA, a total of 14 Mutual Learning Workshops have taken place in the partner countries. In the process, partners have been able to inform, sensitize and strengthen 280 doctors, social workers, carers from social and health care and experts from victim protection institutions against violence against older women. In addition, WHOSEFVA has had the opportunity to speak with 67 women and men in the context of focus groups about their experiences of violence in old age. The results of both activities are very helpful in articulating concrete policy demands to end violence against older women – both at national and European level. Read more: the full press release.