23 January 2017

New project will improve quality of life and health for older people in Greenland

Ageing in the Arctic

The number of older people in Greenland is growing these years, but currently little is known about their living conditions. The project Ageing in the Arctic (AgeArc), funded with 5,6 million DKK by VELUX FONDEN, will remedy this lack of knowledge through, amongst other things, cultural-analytical and cultural-historical studies as well as population surveys of health, well-being, and quality of life among older people in Greenland.

Photo: Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq.

This combined research and development project is headed by associate professor Tenna Jensen, Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe) at the University of Copenhagen:

- Our research will contribute to the development and implementation of new health promoting initiatives and solutions in the Greenlandic municipalities as well as suggestions for improving the education for health care personnel, says Tenna Jensen and continues:

- We will integrate municipal and care practices and research. Therefore, cultural knowledge regarding living condition in Greenland and experiences with the current practices are key focus points for the project. The aim is to obtain new knowledge and understandings of conditions and wants for health initiatives for older people.

The municipalities are essential for the implementation of new actions generated by the project.

- We are very excited about the AgeArc. The expected knowledge is important for the future actions for older people in the municipality, says Keld Jensen, development director in Kommune Kujalleq.

AgeArc will be further developed and completed in close collaboration between the municipalities in Greenland, researchers, health care workers, and educators from University of Copenhagen, Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland), The Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI), University of Southern Denmark, and University College Copenhagen.

Ageing in the Arctic (AgeArc): Well-being, Quality of Life and Health Promotion among older People in Greenland has received 5,6 million DKK in funding from the VELUX FOUNDATION’s crosscutting call for cooperation between research in humanities and practice, and the project will last until the end of 2020.