Healthcare and Elderly Care

In 2007 and 2008 NIHA focused on the important area of health care and elderly care, for several reasons:

* The interest of various Dutch health care education programmes (higher education as well as vocational education) in cooperation with Turkey.
* Budding activities of Dutch insurance companies in Turkey
* Agreements between several Turkish thermal baths and spas with European insurance companies
* The growing number of Dutch pensioners living in Turkish coastal areas
* The limited internationalisation of Turkish health care education
* The shortage of well educated and practically schooled middle management professionals in the Turkish health care sector
* The various projects for elderly first generation Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands
* The activities of the Foundation Health Care Netherlands-Turkey (Stichting Gezondheidszorg Nederland-Turkije)
* Interest of, amongst others, the province of Noord Brabant for Turkish support in solving the shortage in nurses through – for instance – increasing the number of nurses who are second generation Dutch citizens with Turkish roots

In light of the increasing interest in health care, NIHA has developed the following activities to date:

* Developing a plan for the province of Noord Brabant to increase the number of second generation Dutch citizens with Turkish roots in health care in the province (in response to the visit of a delegation headed by the Queen’s Commissioner to Noord Brabant, Hanja Maij-Weggen, in 2007)
* Co-organising a two day conference at the University of Kastamonu (initiated by Dr. Kemal Aydın, chairman of the Foundation Health Care Netherlands-Turkey in 2008)
* Organising of a seminar about health care and elderly care in Izmir (during the visit of the Dutch economic mission in November 2008)
* Contributing to the development of a project that aims to improve the nutrition in Turkish spas
* Developing plans for new spa facilities in the Yozgat province, including the required educational facilities
* Advising Darüsşafaka on improving the command of the English language of employees of its care homes.
* Developing a MATRA-Flex plan on improving the cooperation between the Netherlands and Turkey in the area of vocational education regarding health care (primarily concerning internships). This plan was submitted to the EVD by the Turkish Ministry of National Education in the beginning of 2009.