Background
“By 2030 Italy will be the fourth oldest country in the world” (Euromonitor International 2015). According to Censis (2013), domestic workers employed by Italian families are expected to reach 2,151,000 in 2030), of whom 77.3% are foreign and 60% work for seniors as caregivers. This population of foreign domestic assistants to seniors is itself ageing, and is expected to increase the already growing number of over-65s, who might in turn need assistance in the future (Rapporto Varese 2015). Varese is an 80,000-inhabitant city in North-West Italy, north of Milan and just south of the Swiss border (Provincia di Varese 2017); 13% of its population is over 55 (Urbistat 2017); and foreigners represent over 8% of the province’s population, a significant proportion of whom (Rapporto Varese 2015) is employed as caregivers to assist elderly people in their homes.
Aims
The Age.Vol.A. project starts from the assumption that, given this demographic scenario, between homeassisted Italian seniors and their non-Italian caregivers, a linguistic and cultural barrier as well as a digital divide exist. This tends to increase the physical and social isolation of the elderly population, even reducing their personal space, e.g. when the home is their only living place but it is co-occupied by a carer who is a foreigner and, due to said linguistic and cultural barriers, also remains a stranger.
Methods and preliminary research
The methodology will be primarily based on Applied Linguistics, particularly Critical Discourse Analysis, domain-specific discourse and Translation Studies (LangComm Unit); secondarily, the study will derive methods from social sciences, anthropology and philosophy, especially as regards the quantitative methods to describe the populations considered and for data collection and analysis, and the qualitative methods to interpret their spatial conditions and communicative needs (SocioComm Unit). Preliminary
research has been carried out by the research team, especially as regards institutional online healthcare discourse, terminology, lexicography, linguistic and cultural mediation, anthropology and science dissemination. Young researchers will be involved in all the actions of the project, training them in scientific methods and involving them in the project’s dissemination, in order to develop their starting careers.
Plan and expected outputs
The Age.Vol.A. project hypothesises that the linguistic and cultural barrier existing between homeassisted Italian seniors and their non-Italian caregivers can be removed or at least reduced by creating and introducing multilingual tools (a web portal and a smart device application) aimed at providing the carers with terminology and practical information related to their assisted and the institutions they usually deal with in the carers’ own language(s). To do so, a thorough study of both the seniors and the caregivers’populations of the territory considered (Varese province) should be first carried out, to hear the voices of both seniors and caregivers discussing the lack of social spaces and the  communicative gaps from their own experience and point of view, representing the first output of the project. From this needs analysis, theoretical genres and models of communication will be derived, as a second output. These will be used to design and create the multilingual technological products aimed to assist those who assist the elderly,
as a third output. Patents may be obtained covering the methodological and technological aspects. They would contain, divided and organised into different sections, information useful to the carers’ profession related to senior services, from health and healthcare to administrative issues. These will include terminological tools like multilingual glossaries, information on public institutions dealing with seniors (office hours, contacts), descriptions of administrative procedures, emergency procedures and contacts – all referring to the local territory. One or more of these sections could also be customisable, e.g. with the assisted family’s own contacts and procedures in case of emergency or need. The technological tools would be entirely localised (translated) into a number of selected foreign languages, based on those spoken by most foreign caregivers in the Varese province. Finally, the last output provided for by the Age.Vol.A. project is its own dissemination and communication plan. This will include several activities and two specific actions to present, divulge and promote the products among all the stakeholders (such as seniors, Italian and foreign caregivers, local institutions, organisations, associations and entities in general involved in senior care), the academia and the media.