The School for Older Adults is a free program that provides workshops on health, well-being, and active living, organized by the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Concepción.
By: Nicol Navarrete Castro, Journalist – Faculty of Pharmacy – nnavarrete2019@udec.cl
Images: Courtesy of the Faculty – Freepik photo bank.
In the 1990s, the School of the Third Age was created at the Faculty of Pharmacy. It was an initiative that provided training in healthcare, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles for older adults. “For more than five years, this initiative enrolled more than 800 older adults, who returned to the classroom to learn and enjoy university life,” says Dr. Claudia Mardones Peña, Dean of the Faculty.
In 2025, this activity has reemerged as the School for Older Adults, with the aim of improving people’s quality of life, promoting learning, well-being, and social inclusion. “The Pharmacy Department is leading this new initiative, offering different workshops that will contribute to the well-being and health of our older adults, with an updated view, recognizing them as active and valuable members of our society,” said the Dean.
The program offers 16 workshops between September and December. They address topics such as self-medication and adherence to therapeutic treatments, food safety and intoxication prevention, skin care, sleep hygiene, diabetes mellitus treatment, as well as mental health, loneliness, pain, and loss.
The director of the Pharmacy Department, Dr. Sigrid Mennickent Cid, indicated that this new stage represents an important step for the community: “It is a great joy for our department to reactivate the School for Older Adults, to provide an educational opportunity within the active aging programs, which contemplate the promotion of health and the prevention of disease.”
The program’s contents are taught from a warm, accessible perspective by teachers from the Faculties of Pharmacy and Nursing, as well as the UdeC Healthy Living Center. No previous training is required to participate; the only requirement is an interest in learning, sharing experiences, and building personal autonomy.
An intergenerational view
The modality allows attending the entire program or joining just some activities, depending on the interests. Each independent and free two-hour workshop opens spaces for the whole community, including relatives and caregivers.
The new version of this program aligns with the faculty’s commitment to strengthening educational spaces with an inclusive, intergenerational perspective. In this sense, it is related to the project “Training of senior monitors for health literacy of older people: Two-way learning of interaction with the community,” also led by Dr. Sigrid Mennickent and funded by the Vice-Rector’s Office for Institutional Relations and Outreach (VRIM).
This initiative, in its first phase, allowed training a group of older people from Coelemu, users of the Municipal Health Department (DESAMU), as health monitors. In the second phase, these people led workshops for other older adults of the Desamu of Trehuaco, accompanied by the project team and first-year students from UdeC’s Chemistry and Pharmacy Degree Program.
For Dr. Mennickent, this type of initiative confirms the University’s, and in particular the faculty’s, commitment to the ongoing education of the community. “The more knowledge people have about their health problems and about the importance and correct use of medicines, the better their adherence to treatments, diets, and controls will be. They will be more aware of the importance of physical and mental activity, of sharing with others. In short, they will improve their quality of life.”
Last modified: 20 de mayo de 2026
