Welcome to the 5th M-CARE Newsletter. It covers the activities realized within the framework of the MCARE project in the period May - September 2015. Although it was a summer period M-CARE Partners remained active undertaking all planned actions such as dissemination, piloting and refining the project materials content. In the first section you can find a brief overview of piloting in some Partners’ countries. Within this issue you can also read an interview with Filiz Can, a famous Turkish university professor, who is dealing with physiotherapy. We also present the most successful dissemination activities realized during the mentioned period, as well as introduce our final dissemination event of M-CARE project “Caring for people with disabilities and older people: challenges, opportunities and online) training solutions” that will be held on 1 December 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. The registration is now open. Attendance is free but registration is obligatory, and is possible via an online form. Any other costs incurred in participating to this event (hotel, travel, subsistence, etc.) must be paid for by the attendee. More details about the pilot phase in each country as well as impressions and quotations by the participants will be available in the last issue of the Newsletter. We wish you a pleasant reading and in case you want to contact the editor’s team, please use interprojectsbg@gmail.com. You can find us on http://mcare-project.eu / http://twitter.com/MCareproject / http://www.facebook.com/MCareproj 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 5
M-Care(MobileTrainingforHomeandHealthCaregiverForPeoplewithDisabilitiesandOlderPeople-539913-LLP-1-2013-1-TR-LEONARDO-LMP)projecthasbeenfundedwithsupport
fromtheEuropeanCommission.Thisnewsletterreflectstheviewsonlyoftheauthor,andtheCommissioncannotbeheldresponsibleforanyusewhichmaybemadeoftheinformation
containedtherein.
Editorial
Welcome to the 5th M-CARE Newsletter.
It covers the activities realized within the framework of the M-
CARE project in the period May - September 2015. Although it was
a summer period M-CARE Partners remained active undertaking all
planned actions such as dissemination, piloting and refining the
project materials content.
In the first section you can find a brief overview of piloting in some
Partners’ countries. Within this issue you can also read an
interview with Filiz Can, a famous Turkish university professor, who
is dealing with physiotherapy.
We also present the most successful dissemination activities
realized during the mentioned period, as well as introduce our final
dissemination event of M-CARE project “Caring for people with dis-
abilities and older people: challenges, opportunities and
online) training solutions” that will be held on 1 December 2015 in
Brussels, Belgium. The registration is now open. Attendance is free
but registration is obligatory, and is possible via an online
form. Any other costs incurred in participating to this event (hotel,
travel, subsistence, etc.) must be paid for by the attendee.
More details about the pilot phase in each country as well as
impressions and quotations by the participants will be available in
the last issue of the Newsletter.
We wish you a pleasant reading and in case you want to contact
the editor’s team, please use interprojectsbg@gmail.com.

2. M-CARE PILOTING PHASE
Interpojects team is leading the piloting of M-CARE and developed
a Pilot plan to ensure that all partners run this crucial phase of the
project correctly and consistently, applying similar approaches
across all pilot countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey).
The recruitment of the participants started over the spring of
2015. Huge interest towards the training was expressed by man-
agers of elderly care agencies from the private sector as well as
by public administration experts who manage the national pro-
grammes for personal and social assistants of people with disabili-
ties.
Piloting in Turkey
Gazi University initiated the piloting in April 2015. They identified
30 piloters and 2 trainers for the piloting process. Fifteen of the
piloters are working with elderly people and the rest are working
with people with disabilities. The recruitment of the piloters was
completed on 31 March 2015. They all completed the pre-
assessment and are still continuing their training.
Piloting in Bulgaria
Interpojects reached more than 20 PCGs, who took part in face-to
-face induction training. It was a half-day event where M-CARE e-
learning platform and the mobile application were demonstrated
alongside with their functionalities. At the end of the presentation
the participants asked many questions about the format of the
training as this proved to be quite innovative and unfamiliar for
them. The trainers gave detailed explanations about the training
scheme and asked the participants to give their consent for partic-
ipation in M-CARE piloting. At the time being we may say that af-
ter several months of training the number of piloters varied only
lightly with few participants withdrawing and others joining the
course as they do need training in order to join the national pro-
grammes for personal and social assistants of people with disabil-
ities.

3. M-CARE testing in Bulgaria is now in its most intensive phase and
in the last issue of the Newsletter the readers will find quotations,
impressions and conclusions from the testing phase.
At present all modules have been well received, but suggestions
for additional content have been made (e.g. include handling of a
wheelchair by the personal caregiver) and will be incorporated in
the final versions.

4. INTERVIEW with FILIZ CAN
Who is Prof. Dr. Filiz Can?
Filiz Can graduated from Hacettepe University
School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation
(Turkey) in 1982. She has worked as a physio-
therapist at Hacettepe University Physical Medi-
cine and Rehabilitation Department. She re-
ceived the title of Associated Prof. in 1992 and
Prof. in 2003. She has finished many certificated
courses about different techniques in orthopae-
dic manual therapy, geriatrics, taping, back pain
and orthopaedic rehabilitation. She has been to
the USA for clinical visits in different rehabilitation centres, hospi-
tals and nursing homes for 1.5 months. She was in France at
‘Centre De Traumatologic et D' Orthopedie Fonctionelle’ and
‘Centre De Readaptation Fonctionelle Clemenceau’ hospitals as fel-
low in 1994. She was in Netherlands - Enschede Saxion University
in 2005 as a project manager and visitor academic staff. She is
the previous president of the International Association of Physio-
therapist Working with Older People. She is still a member of
Administrative Board and a delegate of Turkey at the same
association.
Can you say something about The Association of Interna-
tional Physical Therapists Working with Older People?
The WCPT is a confederation of 106 national physical therapy
associations representing more than 350.000 physical therapists
around the world. It was founded in 1951. WCPT aims to improve
global health by representing physical therapy internationally and
encouraging high standards of physical therapy research, educa-
tion and practice.
Subgroups are international physical therapy organizations
recognized by WCPT member organizations established to
exchange scientific knowledge and promote the advancement of
physical therapy in a special area of interest; IPTOP was
recognized as a subgroup of the WCPT in 2003.
What are the organizational goals of IPTOP?
IPTOP represents national special interest groups of physical
therapists working with elderly people. The efforts of the
association are directed towards enabling national organizations
and their individual members to work with older people through
research, evidence based practice, clinical specialization and
collaborative practice with other disciplines and careers. The in-
tention of the association is:
 to be the international resource for physical therapists
working with older people;

5.  To foster collaboration between physical therapists working
with elderly people throughout the world;
 To encourage high standards of physical therapy practice with
older people;
 To advance practice by communicating and exchanging rele-
vant information;
 To encourage scientific research and promote
opportunities for the spread of knowledge of new
developments in the field;
 To assist WCPT member organisations in the formation
and development of recognized groups working with
older people.
How does the physiotherapist contribute to the care of el-
derly in all over the world?
The role of the physiotherapist in elderly care in the world is
enormous. Physiotherapists work in geriatric wards and clinics for
the elderly, the elderly care centres, elderly rehabilitation centres,
nursing homes, day care in nursing homes, physiotherapy and
rehabilitation services for the elderly services are data centres and
old clubs for geriatrics. They determine the devices that the elder-
ly need such as wheelchairs, canes, crutches, corsets and shoes.
They also took part in the home care programmes as one of the
most important member of home care service professionals.
Physiotherapist performs the education of the health care
providers (health care professional or family member). They also
organize the certification and training programmes of the elderly
care professionals. Physiotherapists have been started to work in
preventive health care services and preventive rehabilitation
services after the report of the World Health Organization and
United Nations. Physiotherapists play a key role in preventing
chronic diseases. They take part especially in national and
international projects about physical activity and healthy aging.
Are there any new strategies developed in Turkey and
internationally about the elderly population? Could you, as
a previous chairman and a present Turkish representative
of IPTOP provide any details?
‘International Action Plan’ is the most important Project in the
world which was put forward by the United Nations in the second
World Assembly (8-12 April 2002) in Madrid, Spain. Many coun-
tries, including Turkey, signed this action plan that includes im-
proving the quality of elderly people’s life, finding a solution to
health and care problems of elderly, providing social integration,
and regulating the socio-economic status. Many countriesalso
started working on the national regulation in the frame of this ac-
tion plan. Turkey started to work on this issue in April 2004 with
the coordination of the State Planning Organization and Social
Services and Child Protection Agency. Many other agencies and
NGOs were also included into the project.

6. The Association of the Physiotherapists Working with Geriatrics
took part in this Project by working in three commissions. This
Project finished in 2005. The Report of the Project was printed as
a book entitled “State of the elderly people and National Action
Plan of Aging” edited by The Association of the Physiotherapists
Working with Geriatrics. The strategies determined by this action
plan were accepted by The Ministry of Health and The Ministry of
Family and Social Policies.
The activities are mainly directed towards standardization of el-
derly home care, preparation of a family knowledge system, plan-
ning of services to be offered to elderly people, development of
advisory services for the elderly, prevention of chronic illness, cre-
ation of elderly employment, ensuring the continuity of services
provided to the elderly and preventing elderly abuse.
The most important elements are the structures that permit the
aging at home. For proper functioning of this structuring new
strategies including tele-rehabilitation, tele-care support, robot
systems in elderly care, smart beds and smart homes have to be
implemented.
The increase in the elderly population, even in large countries, be-
comes a problem due to the increase in health costs and removes
the sustainability of the personal care provided for the elderly. For
this reason all the countries started to improve their health care
prevention programmes, to decrease health expenditures that in-
crease by aging. For this reason active aging and physical activity
became an important strategy. These projects or Works are sup-
ported or developed by physiotherapist with the support by all the
countries.
Finally, M-Care Project is developed to support the
individuals who take care of elderly and disabled people.
What is the attitude of the association, where you
performed the Chairmanship in the past, towards the
national and international projects?
Projects like M-Care, and similar initiatives in America, Canada
and Australia generate reports that are taken into account by the
politicians. Regarding the rights of the elderly people all health
care professionals’ duties, powers and responsibilities are deter-
mined by the law. In some developing countries in Europe
(Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania) restructuring on this issue
is still insufficient or not standardized as in our country.
Therefore the EU Health Commission or the relevant departments
of the United Nations stimulate the development of projects like
M-Care.

7. The “International Physiotherapist Working with Older People As-
sociation” was founded in 2003 and the priorities of the associa-
tion are towards bringing together and improving the awareness
of the physiotherapist about the elderly and specialization of the
physiotherapists on this subject.
In the general meeting of the IPTOP association held in Boston in
2013, it was decided that a "Research and Project Commission"
would be established and the responsibility of this commission was
given to me. This commission developed a questionnaire and sent
it to the member countries to get data. Some project proposals
have been developed based on the feedback received from these
data.

8. M-CARE dissemination events
EVBB's Annual Conference
EVBB as one of the partners in M-Care and one of the largest
networks of VET providers in Europe is working closely together
with different institutions within the European Commission. This
year's EVBB's Annual Conference under the patronage of the
European Parliament will be held in Brussels from 21st to the 24th
October, 2015. Among the more than 100 registered participants
and guests will be high-ranking representatives of the European
Parliament and European Commission beside many experts in the
field of Vocational Education and Training to worship the motto of
the conference "Training and Skills for Employment and
Development". A major event will be the presentation of all
projects EVBB is involved in on the 24th October 2015. Martin
Nieher (CDJ/EVBB) will present the state of the art report of M-
Care and will invite the experts present to become active users of
the results. Hopefully, it will inspire people to become actively in-
volved in the implementation process. They will also spread the M-
Care message within the EVBB network and among their partners.
Turkish dissemination events
Within the last four months the Project Coordinator University
of Gazi realized a number of promotional activities that dissemi-
nated the M-CARE progress on Turkish and international level:
 Presentation of a paper from the data of the M-Care Project
(Stakeholders Views On Training Personal Caregivers: A
Transnational Study) at the International Health Manegement
Conference, June 15-17, 2015 - Gümüşhane/Turkey. This
study won the best study award.
 Presentation of the M-Care project at the International Health
Manegement Conference, June 15-17, 2015 - Gümüşhane/
Turkey.

9.  Presentation of a paper from the data of the M-Care Project
(Investigation of the Profiles of Personal Caregivers of the
Disabled and the Elderly in Europe) at the 5th National
Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Congres, 20-24 May 2015
in Bolu/Turkey.
 Prof. Seyhan FIRAT presented the project within a conference
about ‘Good practices about European Centralised projects’

10. M-CARE promoted during the 6th
EUFAMI Congress
On 19th
and 20th
September 2015 The European Federation of
Associations of families of People with mental Illness (EUFAMI)
held its 6th
congress in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The event,
entitled “When East meets West – Families at the heart of Eu-
rope”, was visited by more than 100 participants from Bulgaria,
Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Israel, France, Portugal and other
European and non-European countries. Among the participants
were the representatives of Interprojects team who took the op-
portunity to promote M-CARE project. The topics discussed within
the conference were directly linked with the personal care of
people with disabilities, with emphasis on mental health issues.
The event started with an opening speech by Bert Johnson, the
President of EUFAMI, who shared that this event is held every four
years and this time the participants would have a unique oppor-
tunity to establish direct contacts with the practitioners all over
Europe and even beyond. The speech was followed by couple of
presentations that highlighted the importance of psycho-social re-
habilitation, as well as the development of community based ser-
vices which ensure autonomous and dignified life of people with
disabilities. After the plenary session the participants were split in
five concurrent workshops where they shared their experience and
case studies on topics related to rehabilitation and care. Interpro-
jects’ team attended the dedicated workshop on “Caring for car-
ers” and presented briefly the M-CARE training platforms. The par-
ticipants were impressed by the vast resources included in the
training modules. The official speakers pointed out that in a recent
research conducted by EUFAMI the data shows that burnout and
daily stress are the factors that badly affect the PCG’s work. The
respondents in the presented research revealed that if they re-
ceived qualitative and timely training, they would offer their care
recipients services of a better quality. On the 2nd day of the
event the delegates had the opportunity to hear the testimonials
of people with disabilities themselves as well as by the profession-
als who shared their experience in coping with disabilities and
their limitations. The organizers allocated a special place where
the participants could display their leaflets to disseminate the the-
matically related projects or initiatives. M-CARE grasped the par-
ticipants’ interest and some experts asked for invitations to attend
the final dissemination event in Brussels. Among them were uni-
versity professors, care providers, members of umbrella organisa-
tions, parents and relatives of people with disabilities.

11. The 2-day congress was a very successful dissemination event on
a transnational level where M-CARE project was well-received.

12. Planned Dissemination Events
M-Care Partners to present the mobile app's gamification
features at ITAG 2015
A paper authored by University of Athens and PhoenixKM, entitled
«Gamified mobile/online learning for personal care givers for
people with disabilities and older people», was accepted and will
be presented at the Interactive Technologies and Games (ITAG)
Conference 2015. The conference will take place on 22-23 October
2015 in Nottingham, UK.
ITAG is a yearly conference (around 150 European attendees)
organized by Nottingham Trent University that addresses the
community of developers and educational staff that work with
people with disabilities, including care facilities, special education
schools, etc. and how they can be involved and educated through
new technologies.
The paper that will be presented by the M-Care partners examines
how a gamification approach can enhance and enrich the learning
experience of personal care givers (PCGs) for people with disabili-
ties and older people (potential or in active employment). Using
game elements that pervade the M-Care mobile PCG training
application, users are given the opportunity to self-assess their
newly acquired knowledge and through a rewards system they are
motivated to follow further training courses. The gamified
experience is embedded in a broader educational logic including
an extensive training curriculum and innovative online and mobile
training platforms.

13. Caring for people with disabilities and older
people: challenges, opportunities and (mobile/
online) training solutions
The final event M-CARE project (Mobile Training for Home
and Health Caregiver For People with Disabilities and Older
People - 539913-LLP-1-2013-1-TR-LEONARDO-LMP) takes
place on 1 December 2015 in Brussels, Belgium at VLEVA
premises.
The event “Caring for people with disabilities and older people:
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. Focus will be
on caring in a broader perspective, and how M-CARE’s (mobile/
online) training solutions contribute to successful PCGs.
When?:
Tuesday, 1st
December 2015
Where?:
Vlaams-Europees
verbindingsagentschap vzw
Kortenberglaan 71
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Target groups:
 (Potential) personal assistants/
personal caregivers
 Nurses
 Social workers
 People with disabilities
 Parents/friends/colleagues
 Representative organisations of people with disabilities
 Policy makers
Practicalities:
English is the used language.
Premises are wheelchair accessible.
Registration:
Attendance and lunch are free but registration is obligatory, and is
possible via http://mcare-project.eu/m-care-conference-brussels-
belgium-1-december-2015/. Any costs incurred in participating to
this event (hotel, travel, subsistence, etc.) must be paid for by the
attendee.

14. Agenda:
 8.30-9.00: Registration
 9.00-9.15: Welcome (Seyhan Firat – Gazi University)
 9.15-9.30: Opening speech by MEP Helga STEVENS (N-VA)
(Vice-Chair ECR | Co-Chair Disability Intergroup)
 9:30-10:00: What is M-CARE and the need for such training -
How we met EQF and implemented ECVET principles (Karel
Van Isacker – PhoenixKM / Andrean Lazarov – Interprojects)
 10:00-10:30: The M-CARE training content (Andreas Koth –
EVBB)
 10:30-11:30: Experience in piloting of the training material
("Lessons learnt") + Personal caregivers witness accounts –
(Dr. Bulent Elbasan – Gazi university / Slaveyko Slavkov –
Interprojects / Andreas Koth - EVBB / Maria Goranova –
PhoenixKM)
 11:30-12.00: break
 12:00-12:40: The mobile and online M-CARE training –
(Costas Mourlas – University of Athens / Karel Van Isacker –
PhoenixKM)
 12:40-14:00: Other caregiving initiatives
 ELOSH project: the need for good care towards the end
-users, and how to ensure quality - Asel Kadyrbaeva
(EASPD - Belgium)
 Elderly Care Vocational Certificate /
www.ecvleonardo.com - Elderly Care Vocational
training and rehabilitation - Alecos Tringides (IKME &
Trysis Ltd. – Cyprus)
 Caregiving from a Latin American perspective - Silvia
Margarita Baldiris Navarro (University of Girona –
Spain)
 Ergotherapy for Elderly People and People with
Disabilities – Prof. Hulya Kayihan (Hacettepe University,
Turkey)
 ITIDE project - Inclusion Training in Intellectual
Disability for Educators in Europe – Susan Atkinson
(Leeds Beckett University – UK)
 14:00-14:15: Closing (Seyhan Firat – Gazi University / Karel
Van Isacker – PhoenixKM)
 14:15-16:00: Networking – Lunch buffet
 14.15-16.00: M-CARE demo booth – Mobile and Online
Application
Throughout the entire day, participants will be able to use
the mobile and online training environments, and provide
feedback.

15. M-CARE transnational partner meetings
The 5th project meeting will take place in coincidence with the fi-
nal dissemination event in Brussels. Within the meeting the part-
ners will report the findings from M-CARE pilot phase and based
on them they will decide on future alterations if needed.
The meeting will end up with a final agreement about exploitation
activities that will be implemented after the end of the project.
The last issue of the Newsletter will tell you more about the final
M-Care meeting as well as the final event.
EDPWD policy and other related events
PhoenixKM plans to disseminate M-CARE during the 1st week of
December 2015 when the European Day of People with Disabilities
policy and other related events will take place.
M-CARE at CAVA 2016
PhoenixKM will present M-CARE
project outcomes at CAVA 2016
in Cartagena, Colombia. It will
take place on 26-29 July 2016.

16. 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