Wednesday 11 March 2026 | 13:00 - 14:00
Stream: Populations
Chair: Jesper Ekberg; Sweden

Elder care systems across Europe face the dual challenge of meeting complex needs while ensuring dignity, safety, and meaningful involvement of older adults and their families. This session highlights two initiatives that show how listening and co-creating with older people can drive powerful change. In Oslo, systematic use of patient, family, and staff experience data has uncovered blind spots, challenged assumptions, and reshaped governance in municipal nursing homes. In Iceland, a national campaign co-developed with senior citizens empowered older adults to critically engage with sleeping medication use, sparking widespread conversations and measurable behaviour change. Together, these cases demonstrate how embracing lived experience - not as anecdote but as evidence and leadership - creates more responsive, equitable, and sustainable elder car.

Part 1 - Whose experience counts? Listening across voices in elder care

Patients, relatives and staff rarely tell the same story about quality. Using PREMs, PROMs and family surveys, we triangulated divergent views to surface blind spots and drive dialogue. The session shares methods, surprises and governance lessons from three years of systematic experience measurement.

Johnny Advocaat Oslo Municipality - Agency for Nursing Homes; Norway

Part 2 - Nationwide awareness campaign on feasible and effective use of sleeping medication among older adults in Iceland using patient/public engagement

This presentation will showcase Sofðuvel, a national public awareness campaign in Iceland aimed at reducing the overuse of sleeping medications among older adults. Delegates will learn how the campaign addressed the risks and limited benefits of these medications, and how it empowered older adults through a Patient/Public Engagement (PPE) approach.

The campaign was co-developed with eight senior representatives from National Association of Senior Citizens (LEB) and utilized low-cost strategies including printed materials, media outreach, and social media. It reached thousands across Iceland and resulted in meaningful behavior change: 45% of surveyed users reported reducing or stopping their medication use after engaging with campaign materials.

Attendees will gain insights into designing medication awareness initiatives with older populations, and how LEB as an organization engaged and listened to their communities. This session is relevant for public health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and advocates aiming to involve older adults as active partners in health campaigns.

Anna Birna Almarsdóttir University of Copenhagen; Denmark
Drífa Sigfúsdóttir Representative of people with lived experience