HOPE Students Final: Policy Recommendations

These policy recommendations aim to improve care for older adults during heatwaves by compiling regulations, policies, interventions, and best practices from Rotterdam, Treviso, and Amadora. They address specific needs and challenges, highlighting institutional responsibilities across partner regions for comparison and knowledge exchange. Presented alongside the Guidelines for Ecosystems, the recommendations will be adapted regionally to ensure quality, applicability, and local usage. They will be translated into partner countries' languages and shared through our website, multiplier events, and local heat plans, enhancing their practical value for policy officers and authorities.

Good practices

The last decades have shown a trend towards warmer weather in Europe. This means heat waves will occur more frequently and for longer periods. This causes problems for people susceptible to heat-related-illness (old, very young, pregnant) and those unable to find some form of shelter from the heat. Lonely older adults and immobile are especially vulnerable. In Portland, Oregon in the USA during the summer of 2021, a heat wave lasted for aproximately two weeks. An estimated 1408 people died as a result of health problems caused by prolonged heat exposure. It is not unthinkable that such heat waves might happen in the EU. Preparedness is warranted.