CAPAGE Project

The CAPAGE project, funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) programme of the European Union (2024–2027), addresses the pressing challenge of Sri Lanka’s rapidly aging population, one of the fastest growing in South Asia. This demographic shift has placed an increasing burden on the country’s healthcare system, necessitating improved strategies in geriatric care and healthy aging.

CAPAGE seeks to promote academic and professional excellence by enhancing education, training, and awareness in geriatrics, thereby strengthening the competencies of physiotherapists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Its objectives are: introducing new courses on Healthy Aging and Geriatrics in Sri Lankan universities, establishing six fully equipped functional assessment laboratories for elderly care training, providing specialized professional development programs, creating twelve Active Aging Information Centres to raise public awareness, and making an educational and research network for national and international collaboration. Activities include curriculum development, laboratory establishment, training workshops and seminars, community-based awareness campaigns, and the creation of platforms for knowledge exchange and research in aging-related health. These efforts collectively aim to advance patient-centered geriatric care, improve the quality of services for older adults, and cultivate a stronger academic and professional foundation for sustainable elderly care in Sri Lanka.

The University of Jaffna plays an important role in this initiative by contributing academic expertise, leadership, and research capacity. Faculty members such as Senior Lecturer Santhalingam Sathees, specializing in geriatric nursing and cognitive impairment, Dean Deivy Thabotharan, with expertise in community health nursing, and Luxmi Kamalarupan, with over 17 years of teaching and research experience in nursing and elder quality of life, bring vital knowledge and leadership to the project. Their involvement highlights the institution’s strengths in geriatric nursing, community health, as well as its established capacity to supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate research. Key milestones of the project include its launch at the University of Peradeniya in February 2024, an international workshop in Porto, Portugal (September–October 2024), a policy dialogue in Colombo in February 2025 to adapt European geriatric care models to the Sri Lankan context, and the International Conference on Frailty and Geriatric Assessments in Colombo (February 2025). CAPAGE is delivered in partnership with leading European institutions—FH JOANNEUM (Austria), JAMK University (Finland), Santa Maria Health School (Portugal), and Universidade da Coruña (Spain)—alongside Sri Lankan universities including Peradeniya, Colombo, Jaffna, Ruhuna, Eastern University, and Kotelawala Defence University. By integrating curriculum reform, professional training, infrastructure development, public engagement, and global collaboration, CAPAGE represents a comprehensive and transformative approach to strengthening Sri Lanka’s capacity to meet the healthcare challenges of an aging society.