M-Care (Mobile Training for Home and Health Caregiver For People with Disabilities and Older People) This project (M-Care - 539913-LLP-1-2013-1-TR-LEONARDO-LMP) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

1. You can find us on:
http://www.mcare-project.eu/
http://twitter.com/MCareproject
http://www.facebook.com/MCareproj
Newsletter 4
M-Care(MobileTrainingforHomeandHealthCaregiverForPeoplewithDisabilitiesandOlderPeople-539913-LLP-1-2013-1-TR-LEONARDO-LMP)projecthasbeenfundedwithsupport
fromtheEuropeanCommission.Thisnewsletterreflectstheviewsonlyoftheauthor,andtheCommissioncannotbeheldresponsibleforanyusewhichmaybemadeoftheinformation
containedtherein.
Editorial
Welcome to the 4th M-CARE Newsletter.
It covers a two-month-period of the project, during which all train-
ing modules were finalized and their translation in the partner’s
national languages was initiated. The events and the materials
presented in this Newsletter refer to the period March-May 2015.
In the first section you can find a thorough overview of the M-
CARE mobile application that is visualized through print screens.
Next is an interview with Nathalie Vanhulle, a Belgian expert who
has worked as PCG with and for people with disabilities. The inter-
view took place during the M-CARE international conference in
Antaliya, Turkey.
We also present the dissemination activities that all partners have
carried out. And last but not least, at the end of the Newsletter
you can find out more about the Partners’ plans regarding the pi-
loting phase of the project.
If you want to receive up-to-date information, please also follow
the project website www.mcare-project.eu, as well as our social
media channels (Twitter, Facebook).
If you would like to contribute to the next editions of the
Newsletter, please contact the editorial team at
interprojectsbg@gmail.com. The next edition will be issued in July,
2015 and we will be more than glad to publish your materials if
relevant to the M-CARE aims and objectives.

2. M-CARE MOBILE APPLICATION
A preview of the M-Care mobile application
The implementation of the M-Care training mobile application has
begun and we are able to present a preview of its features.
The app includes educational modules for potential or active
personal caregivers for people with disabilities and older people
(PCGs) and PCG training centres. Users can reach the educational
material by defining a set of parameters through a wizard, search
freely using keywords or browse through the list of all available
courses. They are also able to monitor their progress through a
point & badges system and through quizzes at the end of each
training unit.
Figure 1: Main menu of the app
Figure 2: The wizard

3. The thematic categories of the courses offered through the app
are the following:
Disability awareness
Communication skills
Policy
Social Inclusion
Psychological empowerment
Physiological needs
Hygiene
Daily care in house
First aid and risks
Environment
Mobility
Leisure & Daily activities
Burnout of PCG
Training units
For each training unit, focus is
given to embedded multime-
dia such as YouTube videos
and pictures, which will be
complemented by textual in-
formation and links to further
study material.
At the bottom of every course
there is a discussion icon that
leads to a discussion board
concerning the lesson (user’s
questions, photographs, an-
swers). There is also the op-
tion to share the training unit
(email, social media, etc.) or
to mark it as a favourite.

4. Figure 3: Example of a training unit
As mentioned above, after each course, users are asked to answer
a quiz in order to assess their progress, earn points and badges.
Figure 4: Earning a badge
The application will be finalised in a few
months and it will be offered for free for
Android devices. It is worth noting that the
app will be available in Bulgarian, Dutch,
English, German, Greek, and Turkish
languages.

5. INTERVIEW with NATHALIE VANHULLE
Dear Nathalie Vanhulle,
could you introduce
yourself briefly and
what your affinity is
with personal assis-
tance?
My name is Nathalie Van
Hulle, 38 years old and liv-
ing in Oostkamp, a suburb
of Bruges in Flanders, Bel-
gium.
I graduated as a
bachelor orthopedago-gics
and I worked 3 years as a
personal assistant in an in-
itiative for people with
disabilities in Bruges.
My main responsibilities were to support the persons with
Disabilities during their daily activities. I was commissioned by the
client to help him / her with his / her daily hygiene, assist in pre-
paring meals, administrative tasks and support for outdoor activi-
ties
What were the biggest challenges in performing this job?
For me, the biggest challenge was to remain neutral in my job. As
a personal assistant you are not in an aid worker position, but
rather in a supporting role. One of my clients had this nicely
worded, he described how I was to him in a respectful way, his
arms and his legs, and in that way he could as independent as
possible in daily life.
How did you cope with request for things you had never
done? Did you follow an additional training or did you
obtain direct advice from your client (person with
disabilities)?
One of my clients was in need of extra medical care due to
bedsores. During the day, my client relied on his professional
home nurse, but during my night shift I was forced to cope myself
with the care of his sores. Such medical act was not part of my
training, and I therefore followed an extensive first aid course
from the Red Cross, practicing my skills along with his home
nurse. I didn’t receive any instructions from the client himself,
because he had never learned how to take care of it and given the
severity of wounds, he was appointed a professional nurse.

6. You already have gone through the M-CARE modules. What
is your opinion, what could be better, did we miss
something?
I believe that the 14 modules are very clear and user friendly. The
offered 14 modules also address the training needs of a personal
assistant.
Regarding the priority of the modules as set on the mobile
learning platform, I would suggest rearranging the order of certain
modules, e.g. hygiene, daily care at home, first aid and risk which
in my opinion should have a more prominent place. The already
made analyses certainly can be helpful as well.
Do also not forget that the modules should also be applicable to
young people with disabilities. This is not clearly mentioned
anywhere, but personal assistance is equally important at an early
age for people with disabilities, whatever their age.
What is the importance of videos in supporting the learning
material?
The supporting material needs to provide the personal assistant
with a clear picture of how s/he can handle in a proper, ergonomic
and respectful way with his / her client’s needs. It is equally
important to process a variety of target groups in the footage:
people with disabilities, older people with disabilities, but equally
young people with disabilities.
Video material offers an easy way to demonstrate certain
practices, and can be easily view again and again.
M-CARE focuses on mobile learning, so via the smartphone.
What is your view of our approach? Will this offer added
value?
I think the application certainly offers added value for the training
as a personal assistant, the training material will be readily at
hand. If a personal assistant is confronted with a problem or a
specific question s/he gets from a client, then s/he will be able to
consult the mobile learning platform.
The mobile learning platform also offers freedom to the personal
assistant, s/he can decide where and when s/he runs through the
training material.
What advice do you have for beginners or potential PAs?
My advice would be that as personal assistant you ought to be
aware of the role that you take with respect to the client. As a
personal assistant, you are a full supporter of the ADL (Activities
of Daily Life) of your client, but the client retains the control of the
direction of his own life.

7. What advice do you have for M-CARE?
I have been lucky to get acquainted with M-Care project partners.
The contribution of each partner of the project not only offers a
good cooperation towards a full-fledged mobile learning platform
for personal assistants but for me it was especially interesting in
seeing the creation of new opportunities and new collaborations /
projects.
I am confident that the knowledge, enthusiasm and expertise of
the partners should not end with the development of one project
but you must continue to look for new challenges / projects for
people with disabilities and older people.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and enthusiasm during the
congress in Antalya!
What can a personal assistant do in Flanders, Belgium?
For the following activities, the personal assistant can offer both
practical, substantive and organizational assistance and / or
support.
Household activities that belong to daily life activities:
cleaning, ironing, washing dishes …
Physical activities: nursing, support for swimming, etc.
Daily activities such as reading the newspaper, playing
chess, go on an excursion, etc.
For the following matters the personal assistant can only pro-
vide practical assistance and / or support with activities of eve-
ryday life.
Adult education, pedagogical, orthopedagogical assistance
and / or support of person with limitations and / or his par-
ents
School and work
Source: http://www.onafhankelijkleven.be/upload/
Publicaties/Opstart%20en%20beheer/12.09.14%
20Infomap%20voor%20PERSOONLIJKE%
20ASSISTENTEN.pdf

8. M-CARE dissemination events
Qualitative Personal Caring in a European Perspec-
tive - M-CARE workshop in Antalya, Turkey
M-CARE partners organised a workshop called “Qualitative
Personal Caring in a European Perspective” on 7 May 2015. The
event was held in Antalya, Turkey in between the 4th M-CARE
project meeting.
Gazi University alongside with PhoenixKM and Interprojects
brought beneficiaries from their countries to attend the event and
to share their experience and feedback about the implementation
of M-CARE mobile learning.
It was an one day event where the useful presentations were fol-
lowed by fruitful discussions on how best to ensure qualitative
care, rehabilitation and autonomy of people with disabilities.
The workshop was officially opened by Prof. Seyhan Firat from
Gazi University and Karel Van Isacker from PhoenixKM who
welcomed the participants and asked them shortly to introduce
themselves. There were university professors, social workers,
personal caregivers, therapists working with disabled people,
friends and relatives of people with disabilities, and of course the
project partners. The attendees were about 30 people in total.
After the introduction the floor was given to Assoc. Prof. Bülent
Elbasan from Gazi University and Ms. Stavroula Papavasiliou
from University of Athens (UoA) who presented the M-CARE
survey results. Ms. Stavroula Papavasiliou gave emphasis on the
comparative part of the report while Assoc. Prof. Bülent Elbasan
presented the findings from Turkey.
The next presentation came from EVBB team. They presented the
M-CARE curriculum and the content of the training modules.

9. After the coffee break the working session continued with
a presentation of the M-CARE mobile application and the online
platform made by Prof. Costas Mourlas from UoA and Karel Van
Isacker from PhoenixKM.
This way the first part of M-CARE workshop was completed and
the participants were invited to a working lunch.
The afternoon session was allocated for external speakers who
presented innovative approaches for rehabilitation and care of
people with disabilities. The presented topics were “Pilates and
Physical Activity” by Kadriye Tombak (Fizyo Sport Center), “Aqua
Therapy for Elderly People and Children with Disabilities” by F.
Cumhur Elmaci (Ilgi Special Education and Rehabilitation Center),
Animal Supported Physiotherapy in People with Disabilities by
Dilek Elmaci (Ilgi Special Education and Rehabilitation Center),
and “Physical Activity in people with disabilities and Elderly Peo-
ple” by Assoc. Prof. Deran Oskay (Gazi University).
Within the final session of the event all participants shared that
they got inspiring and helpful ideas how to increase the quality of
services to people with disabilities and they will soon implement
them in the activities of their organizations. All presentations can
be found at M-CARE website.

10. M-CARE was promoted within the scope of the
Project:
“Supporting Implementation and Monitoring of
CRPD in Turkey”
The Project was initiated by the focal point of Turkey, General
Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the
Elderly, in cooperation with United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in line with Article 33 (National Implementa-
tion and Monitoring) of the Convention. It aims promoting the
implementation and improving the monitoring capacity of CRPD
(Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) in Turkey.
Activities of the project include; raising awareness of relevant
public institutions with regard to their obligations imposed by
CRPD, developing indicator sets to be utilized in monitoring
process and enhancing the data sets and data collection
methodology.
Within the scope of the project activities on data collection and
development of indicator sets, a meeting was held on
“Participation of Persons with Disabilities to Political and Social
Life” on 10 April 2015 in Ankara – Limak Ambassadore Hotel with
the participation of representatives from political parties, Ministry
of Internal Affairs, CSO’s and experts from relavant public
institutions. M-CARE and its activities were explained to the
participants. Leaflets were distributed to the participants as well.

11. M-CARE promotion as part of the Project: Im-
proved Integration of Persons with Disabilities into
Society”
The overall objective of grant scheme is ensuring equal access to
goods, services and all aspects of life, to people with disabilities
and the Purpose of the project is to strengthen capacity of CSOs
working in the field of disability and institutional capacity of
EYHGM (General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabili-
ties and the Elderly).
Within the scope of the project, trainings are held for CSO repre-
sentatives and personnel of relevant public institutions. One of
these trainings was held in 9-10 April 2015 in Ankara with the
participation of representatives from CSO’s and relevant public in-
stitutions. Approximately 80 trainees participated in the training.
M-Care was promoted during the meeting and participants were
informed about the project activities.

12. M-CARE PROJECT PRESENTED WITHIN A
TRAINING SEMINAR ON TELECARE
The Institute for Community-based So-
cial Services Foundation (ICCS) runs a
project (http://telecare.icss-bg.org/)
with as main aim to introduce Telecare
in Bulgaria and to test the service with
20 users with disabilities as well as to
train Bulgarian NGOs to establish the
Telecare as a part of their community
services.
As part of the project on 13th
May 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s In-
terprojects team was invited to take part in a training seminar,
entitled “How to introduce Telecare in Bulgaria?”.
This service gives an opportunity to people with disabilities to use
distance support by a personal caregiver through a special device
which connects the person with the so-called monitoring centre.
The person with disability needs to press a panic button every
time when he/she feels like the personal caregiver should support
him/her.
Within the course of the seminar the organisers presented in
details the service and its structure and functionalities. As the two
projects, M-CARE and Telecare, have similar aims and target
groups the representatives of Interprojects’ team were invited to
present the M-CARE training programme.

13. After the presentation the participants
discussed how the two electronic plat-
forms can be linked to allow the users
with disabilities to use their re-
sources. The mobile application of M
-CARE will be also used for training of
personal assistants of people with disabil-
ities in Perushtitsa, a small town in South
Bulgaria. How the set collaborations with-
in the seminar are developing you can
learn from the next issue of the Newslet-
ter.
M-CARE Stakeholder
M-CARE presented to DG EMPLOYMENT
EVBB met in May 2015 in Brussels with the DG EMPL, Unit C5 and
presented among other things M-CARE project, its aims and ob-
jectives.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS PARTICIPATION
M-CARE at ITAG2015
University of Athens (Constantinos Mourlas, Stavroula Papavasil-
iou, Katerina Sotirakou) and PhoenixKM (Karel Van Isacker) are
preparing the paper “Gamified mobile/online learning for personal
care givers for people with disabilities and older people” which will
be presented at ITAG (Interactive Technologies and Games Con-
ference) 2015 on 22-23 October 2015, in Nottingham, UK.
M-CARE at SGSCC’s final conference event
During the Interdisciplinary Symposium “Social Competences,
Creativity and Wellbeing” on June 3-5 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, M
-CARE will be addressed by Karel Van Isacker (PhoenixKM) during
his keynote “Social Skills At The Centre Of Inclusion”. Interpro-
jects will ensure the dissemination of M-CARE promo material.

14. M-CARE conference in Brussels, Belgium
On 1 December 2015, the final M-CARE conference will be organ-
ised in Brussels, Belgium at VLEVA premises.
The event “Caring for people with disabilities and older peo-
ple: challenges, opportunities and (mobile/online) training
solutions” will focus on the importance of good quality personal
caregiving (PCG) for people with disabilities and older people. Fo-
cus will be on caring in a broader perspective, and how M-CARE’s
(mobile/online) training solutions contribute to successful PCGs.
Target groups:
(Potential) personal assistants/personal caregivers
Nurses
Social workers
People with disabilities
Parents/friends/colleagues
Representative organisations of people with disabilities
Policy makers
Where?:
Vlaams-Europees verbindingsagentschap vzw
Kortenberglaan 71
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Practicalities:
English is the used language.
Premises are wheelchair accessible.
Registration:
Attendance is free but registration is obligatory, and is possible via
http://www.mcare-project.eu. Any other costs incurred in partici-
pating to this event (hotel, travel, subsistence, etc.) must be paid

15. M-CARE Pilot Phase
The M-CARE pilot phase will run between May 2015 and November
2015. The focus of the piloting will be on the mobile application,
however each partner will use other approaches to optimise the
effect of the training. These approaches will compliment the usage
of mobile and e-learning platforms. For instance, the Partners will
organise face-to-face meetings where participants can interact
among each other and those who need help for registration and
using of the interactive content will be supported.
Generally the Partners will follow the commonly agreed pilot plan
developed by Interprojects, the WP leader.
How will each Partner run the pilots?
In Turkey the participants in piloting will be parents or relatives
of people with disabilities and low-skilled people and the trainers
will be academic staff and experts from the Ministry.
In Belgium the participants in piloting will be potential caregivers,
functioning PCGs who need to upgrade their knowledge and skills,
and the trainers will be a Carer of CP user, Expert PCG and care
recipient users, as well as Own staff.
In Bulgaria the piloting will be conducted in the following cities:
Sliven, Plovdiv, Sofia, Smolyan. The targeted piloters will be
personal assistants, social assistants, medical orderlies. The
trainers will be psychologists and social workers.
In Germany the piloters will be potential caregivers and trainers
of the caregivers (to answer the questions of the piloters and give
feedback). The trainers will be VET trainers, social workers, nurses
for elderly.

16. M-CARE transnational partner meetings
The 4th project meeting took place in Antalya, Turkey on 6-9 May
2015. During the meeting, the partners reported their progress
since the 3rd project meeting.
The essential part of the meeting was the discussion on finalising
the M-CARE training curriculum, taking onboard feedback from the
national advisory boards and other relevant experts. Also the or-
ganisation of the forthcoming piloting period was discussed. Other
administrative and project management issues were also dis-
cussed.
As usual the meeting was finalised with a detailed action plan de-
scribing tasks and responsibilities for the next months till the final
meeting. The final meeting has been planned for 30 November—2
December 2015 in Brussels, Belgium

17. Consortium
Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey – Project Coordinator
Gazi University is one of the biggest universities of Turkey
with over 68.000 students including 56.000 undergraduate
and 12.000 postgraduate students currently studying in its
171 academic departments.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Seyhan FIRAT
Email: sfirat@gazi.edu.tr
Ministry of family and social policy, General Directorate of services
for elderly and disabled people, Turkey
The General Directorate coordinates the activities
on preparing national policies and strategies aimed
at prevention, education, employment and rehabili-
tation services, ensuring that people with disabili-
ties fully and equally participate in social life with-
out facing any discrimination.
Contact person: Mr. Tayyar Kuz
Email: tayyar.kuz@aile.gov.tr
PhoenixKM BVBA, Belgium
PhoenixKM is a consultancy with extensive
expertise in the field of education and train-
ing that targets people with disabilities, but
also their stakeholders, while making use of
the benefits offered by ICT.
Contact person: Mr. Karel Van Isacker
Email: karel@phoenixkm.eu
INTERPROJECTS Ltd., Bulgaria
INTERPROJECTS is a training provider, having its activities
fully directed towards people with disabilities and older
people. Their team consists of experts in the field of acces-
sibility issues, career orientation and guidance, employ-
ment, mentoring, e-games and networks of employers of disability etc.
Contact person: Mrs. Tonka Cholakova
Email: interprojectsbg@gmail.com
University of Athens, Greece
The Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Edu-
cation and the Mass Media operates within the Faculty of
Communication and Mass Media Studies of the National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Laboratory serves re-
search and educational needs in the domain of new technol-
ogies and their applications in communication, education and
the mass media.
Contact person: Prof. Constantinos Mourlas
Email: mourlas@media.uoa.gr
Europäischer Verband Beruflicher Bildungsträger, Germany
EVBB is an Umbrella-Organisation of 50 Vocational
Training Centres in 21 European and International
countries and is based in Germany. In 2012 EVBB set
up a “Quality Charter”, taking into account the actual
developments in European Quality Policy such as EQAVET and EQARF.
Contact person: Mr. Fritz-Gerhard KUHN
Email: Fritz-Gerhard.kuhn@evbb.EU