Dand according to data released today in Montemor-o-Velho, Coimbra district, the first phase of VirtuALL – Innovation, Aging, Quality of Life – presented, in 2019, as a pioneering project in Portugal and lasted about three years – covered more than a thousand people over 65 years of age from that and from the municipalities of Figueira da Foz, Cantanhede, Mira, Penacova and Mealhada.
Promoted by the Bairrada and Mondego Local Development Association (Ad-elo), it now extends to three other similar associations, covering 14 more municipalities: Arganil, Oliveira do Hospital, Tábua and Góis (Adiber), Castelo Branco, Penamacor , Vila Velha de Ródão and Idanha-a-Nova (Adraces) and Arruda dos Vinhos, Sobral de Monte Agraço, Alenquer, Lourinhã, Cadaval and Torres Vedras (West Leader).
“The idea is that at the end of the project, in 2024, more than two thousand seniors may have participated”, Mário Fidalgo, executive secretary of Ad-elo, told the Lusa agency today.
“With the help of these technologies, this is an aging that wants to be active and healthy” stressed the official, adding that, in the last three years, a team of three technicians (specialists in psychology, physiotherapy and human geography) worked with elderly people aged six municipalities originally involved, in a formula rotating by municipality, in group sessions of 10 people, one day a week, over five weeks.
With the constitution of the VirtuALL Community, formalized today, and which also involves the Regional Section of the Center of the Order of Doctors, there will be four technical teams, one for each local development association, to carry out this work with the seniors of the 20 municipalities involved, he explained. Mario Fidalgo.
“We want to develop the idea that at any age it is possible to be active and give people unique experiences”, added Mário Fidalgo, exemplifying with the games and collaborative exercises possible to be carried out with augmented reality technology and virtual reality glasses.
Investment in the project, according to the official, amounts to around 650 thousand euros, from 2019 until the end of this second phase, in 2024.
Speaking at the session, Emílio Torrão, mayor of Montemor-o-Velho and also of Ad-elo, stressed that the VirtuALL project “was disruptive at the time (in 2019) and today we almost assume it naturally”.
“At the time it wasn’t easy, it was something ahead of its time, the challenge of putting someone over 65 years old in front of a console playing a game. But when they try it, they don’t want anything else”, guaranteed the mayor.
Looking at the audience in the auditorium of the Municipal Library of Montemor-o-Velho, Emílio Torrão glimpsed some participants from the parish of Arazede “who have already tried it and liked it”, and others, from Penamacor, one of the new adherent municipalities “who are curious”, noticed.
“In good time we managed to expand (the project). Anyone who sees these seniors having fun, playing with these digital experiences, realizes that they are all excited (…) It breaks the loneliness of some (in the audience there were those who waved with head agreeing), allows gains in quality of life and makes seniors happier”, observed Emílio Torrão.
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