On Monday 18 March, at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce a panel discussion “The future of long-term care for the older persons and persons with disabilities” was held, which brought together numerous representatives of the public, private and civil sectors. This event was organized by the Red Cross of Serbia as part of a public advocacy campaign that is implemented as part of the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis and future disasters”.

His Excellency Christian Ebner, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria in Belgrade, Ljubomir Miladinović, Secretary General of the Red Cross of Serbia, Milun Trivunac, Advisor to the President, Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Nataša Todorović, the Red Cross of Serbia expert in the field of aging, Brankica Janković, Commissioner for Protection of Equality spoke on the panel as well as Borka Jeremić, head of the United Nations Population Fund office in Serbia, Jasmina Tanasić, program director of the Standing Conference of Cities and Municipalities, Tamara Korsić from the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment, as well as other representatives of various institutions and companies.

The goal of the panel discussion is to establish a dialogue between all actors in order to raise awareness of this demographic problem in Serbia and the need to strengthen the capacity of long-term care and support services for older persons and persons with disabilities. Special emphasis was placed on innovative technologies, digitization and information technology and their potential for transforming long-term care services, so representatives of Serbian companies 3F - Fabricando Fabe and Ovio Care participated in the panel in addition to the representative of the Centre for Digital Transformation.

The panel discussion was implemented as part of the campaign “Think about it! Today care is needed by someone else, tomorrow it may be needed by you”, created as part of the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis and future disasters” funded by the European Union, the Austrian Development Agency and the Austrian Red cross. This is the first in a series of activities aimed at improving and modernising this type of services and assistance, in accordance with the needs of the research conducted by the Red Cross of Serbia.