On the 7th of October, thanks to the LUCAS Project, the Third EU Coma Awakenings Day was celebrated.
LUCAS (Links United for Coma Awakenings through Sport) is a European-funded project funded under the ERASMUS+ Sports programme, with the partnership of the European Parlament and selected as success case by the groups of experts of The Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC). LUCAS promotes activities, seminars and events for raising awareness about coma among the general society, encouraging innovative actions and methodologies for improving the well-being of people with acquired brain injury; specifically, those who have awakened from a coma.
This Third Edition consolidates and demonstrates a great interest by the European community. Also, the COMA documentary film serves us as a tool to educate our society about this conditions and associated issues, as well as overcome barriers and dispel some of the myths that abound in connection with coma.
LUCAS was lead by the Italian entity Futura, from January 2015 to December 2016. SEAS (Sociedad Española de Asistencia Sociosanitaria) and DEPENDENTIAS (Asociación Estatal para el Desarrollo de Servicios y Recursos de Apoyo a la Dependencia) were also involved, together with different partners from Cyprus, Denmark, Lituania, Portugal and Belgium. Thanks to the LUCAS project, we had the opportunity to analyse the context in several European countries, gathering best practices in this field – specifically, in sports – to optimise the quality of life of people with acquired brain injury and their caregivers.
Two editions were celebrated in 2015 and 2016 too; in Spain, partners organised:
Cineforums, for disseminating the relevance and challenges related to coma;
Roundtables: “Sports for acquired brain injury and rehabilitation after coma awakenings: current experience and future ”
Workshop: “Sports and physical activity for people with acquired brain injury: resources and success ”
Fifth Edition of the Research Award “Francisco Garcés Roca”, aimed at making known innovative practices proposed from European-scoped associations working on sports as rehabilitation therapy for people with acquired brain injury
Social Media and community management.
Polibienestar (Instituto de Políticas de Bienestar Social – Universitat de Valencia), Hospital NISA Valencia al Mar, Nueva Opción ((Asociación de Daño Cerebral Adquirido de Valencia) and ADACEMA (Asociación de Daño Cerebral Adquirido de Málaga) has also been involved in LUCAS.
K-veloce I+D+i also collaborated in the preparation of all editions of the European Coma Awakenings Day, as well as in the project management and support to all Spanish entities during the project lifecycle.
