The French partners of FrailSafe are working very hard to raise awareness about the project. One of the occasions was an “Open Doors” event organized by ONPA (Office Nancéien des Personnes Âgées), a local French association for older people, on 30 June and the 1 July 2016. Given the target group of the ONPA, it goes without saying that FrailSafe French partners, represented by a group of investigators from INSERM and the Geriatric Department of Nancy’s University Hospital, are closely working with the association.
The event consisted in welcoming around 850 older citizens from the city of Nancy (France) to inform them about the activities organized by the ONPA on culture, multimedia, social meeting clubs, physical exercise and all kinds of ways to stay active and socially involved as time goes on. FrailSafe French partners were present to inform the visitors about the objectives of the project, but mainly to encourage them to enlist as volunteers to the project, as their feedbacks will contribute to the improvement of the FrailSafe final protocol to detect frailty among older people. Visitors had the chance to try virtual games on tablets and arterial stiffness measurement with a Mobil-O-Graph®.
Visitors and investigators were thrilled by the idea of using innovative technologies to prevent frailty and/or delay its onset and thus enable older citizens to remain active and healthy as long as possible.