FRAGILITÀ DEGLI ANZIANI E INVECCHIAMENTO DELLA POPOLAZIONE NEI PIANI DI ZONA: PRIMI ELEMENTI DI UNA RICERCA NAZIONALE

The contribution intends to present the results of a research – included in the national program “Redesign – frail elderly, intergenerational solidarity and aging friendly communities” – which analyzed the local program of the Zone Plans (ZP) of some territories of our country with the aim of verifying whether and how much the issue of the frailty of the elderly is taken into consideration. After an introduction that focuses on the issue of fragility, as it is addressed by international literature, the contribution proposes the demographic framework of the Italian population and the extent of the phenomenon of population aging, and then focuses on an analysis of the content of the ZP of the municipalities of Milan, Brescia, Abbiategrasso (MI), Verona, Ponte di Piave (TV), Larino (CB), Isernia and Lecce. In particular, through the analysis of four thematic areas present in the ZP (services for the elderly, the aging of the population, the relationship between frailty and elderly life, the role of the caregiver) three ways of understanding frailty was identified, variously declined in the different territories studied: institutional, semi-multidimensional and multidimensional. A strong correlation was observed between the conceptualization of frailty in elderly life and the social offer: more the fragility assumes social, economic and psychological characteristics – in addition to the bio-medical aspects (multidimensional fragility) – more the services promoted by the administrations extend on various fronts by involving in the operational structure not only public actors, but also coming from proximity networks and / or from the private social sector