Promoting personal and social competence with the elderly : a community-based program

Abstract

The purpose of the present work is to describe and present the final results of a Personal and Social Competence Promotion Program – PSCPP [1] [2] carried out in the community with a group of older people (> 55 years) living in Lisbon. This project [4] was born from a partnership between Junta de Freguesia de Santa Maria de Belém and the Social Adventure’s team of the Faculty of Human Kinetics. The mentioned project took place from November 2003 until July of 2005, and included both regular and extra sessions. The “Peer” Project aimed at promoting healthy life styles; developing interpersonal skills, collaboration and support competences among the seniors; as well as adaptation to aging and development of behaviors related to positive health. In the first year, a group of elderly volunteered to participate in the sessions carried out by the technician and, in the second year, some elements of this group leaded the session for other new-comers.