The World report on ageing and health: a policy framework for healthy ageing

Although populations around the world are rapidly ageing, evidence that increasing longevity is being accompanied by an extended period of good health is scarce. A coherent and focused public health response that spans multiple sectors and stakeholders is urgently needed. To guide this global response, WHO has released the first World report on ageing and health, reviewing current knowledge and gaps and providing a public health framework for action. The report is built around a redefinition of healthy ageing that centres on the notion of functional ability: the combination of the intrinsic capacity of the individual, relevant environmental characteristics, and the interactions between the individual and these characteristics. This Health Policy highlights key findings and recommendations from the report.

WEBINAR Integrated Care Matters Series 2- Preventing and Managing Frailty

The International Foundation for Integrated Care is delighted to introduce the 2nd series of webinars on people-centred integrated care in practice. This series will have a particular focus on active and healthy ageing and preventing and managing frailty. The webinars will be hosted by IFIC Scotland in collaboration with the University of the West of Scotland, the Institute of Research and Innovation in Social Services, and the Health and Social Care Alliance.  Each monthly webinar will feature health and care practitioners from Scotland in conversation with colleagues from across the World and with insights from people who currently use health and social care support. All of our ‘Home and Away’ presenters have experience of implementing people-centred integrated care for older people and will offer practical tips and peer support as part of IFIC’s global community of practice. Each webinar will extend IFIC’s on-line knowledge tree by collating information ...

Age Friendly, Healthy, Connected Communities. IFIC Scotland Integrated Care Matters: Build Back Better Webinar Series

IFIC's new report, Realising the true value of integrated care describes the steps we must take to create a radically different future beyond Covid-19. The report is a powerful call to reset our compass to a new reality based on solidarity and collaboration for population health. IFIC Scotland and partners will explore this new future in series 5 of their Integrated Care Matters webinars. Guest panelists, members of IFICs international Special Interest Groups, will share their experiences and insights and challenge us to design a better future that improves lives and opportunities for all. Each webinar will be accompanied by a topic resource with links to further information. All who register will receive links to the recordings and topic resources.

Professor Anne ...

World Health Organization Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) and the Integrated Care of Older Patients with Frailty in Primary Care (ICOOP_Frail) Study in Korea

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently endorsed the proposal for a Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020-2030). The WHO defines "healthy aging" as "the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age." Among the strategies for the Decade of Healthy Ageing, the WHO has suggested enhancing intrinsic capacity, promoting functional ability, and implementing the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) package. The WHO has defined steps for ICOPE evaluation and scale-up and is performing a prospective study in 2-3 countries (low and middle income, high income) to test its feasibility in 2021-2022 and a multinational randomized study to validate its clinical efficacy and effectiveness in 2022-2024. Intrinsic capacity and frailty represent two faces of the same coin, with one indicating the reserves of the individual and the other indicating the deficits that accumulate with age. The Integrated Care of Older Patients with Frailty in Primary ...

UN Decade of Healthy Ageing – The Platform

The United Nations has proclaimed 2021–2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing, with WHO leading international action to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities. The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing is a global collaboration that brings together diverse sectors and stakeholders including governments, civil society, international organizations, professionals, academic institutions, the media and the private sector to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities. The collaboration focuses on four action areas that are strongly interconnected:

Area 1. Combatting Ageism: changing how we think, feel and act towards age and ageing;

Area 2. Age-friendly Environments: developing communities in ways that foster the abilities of older people;

Area 3. Integrated Care: delivering person centred integrated care and primary health services responsive to older people; and

Area 4. Log-term Care: providing older people who need it with access to long-term care. To make the Decade of ...

IFIC Scotland Integrated Care Matters: Webinar Series 6

IFIC Scotland and partners have launched series 6 of IFIC Integrated Care Matters webinars. The series kicked off with some webinars led by IFICs SIGs then begin to explore how we can work together to promote health and wellbeing, inclusion and participation in communities. This builds on IFIC`s plenary session at ICIC21 – you can view that session here.

Guest panelists from different systems will share insights and challenge us to create age friendly, compassionate, healthy communities that leave no one behind. Each webinar is accompanied by a topic resource with links to further information. All who register will receive links to the recordings and topic resources. 
 

Integrated Care Matters: Webinar Series 7: Proactive, Personalised Digital Care and Support in collaboration with Scotland’s Digifest22

IFIC Scotland and partners are delighted to announce the first webinar in our Integrated Care Matters Series 7. This series will consider innovations in holistic and personalised approaches to integrated care and support.

Each webinar will be accompanied by a topic resource with links to further information. All who register will receive links to the recordings and topic resources.

Integrating Health and Care for Older People in China: What Has Been Accomplished? What is Next?

In China, in addition to its rapid ageing process and large older population, the incidence of chronic disease and disability in the elderly is astonishingly high. Among the 267 million people aged 60 and over in 2021, there were about 190 million people with at least one chronic disease and 40 million living with disability [1]. This has created a huge challenge for the world’s most populous country which is also a middle-income economy in caring for its senior citizens. In response to the complex needs of the elderly and drawing from international experience, China has adopted an active ageing and healthy ageing strategy, and integrating health and care has increasingly been a policy priority for coping with population ageing in the past decade. Progress has been made while challenges remain. The experiences and lessons of China might be referential for the other middle income countries in integrating health ...

Person-centred long-term care for older persons: a new Lancet Commission

The UN declared 2021–30 to be the Decade of Healthy Ageing, and efforts are being made to maximise the functional ability of people over their life course. Yet older people are marginalised and perceived as a burden, particularly those with ongoing loss in capacity. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than in the context of long-term care (LTC) worldwide, where older people in some settings encounter a loss of independence and other violations of their human rights. Such experiences can range from deprivation of liberty and loss of legal capacity and consent to coerced institutionalisation, exposure to abuse, neglect,and disrespect, and persistent use of restraints. 

How can Ireland mobilise social care community networks across the island to better support people to live healthily and ‘age in place’ throughout the life course?

Population aging is a phenomenon affecting almost every developed country worldwide and one that is increasingly prevalent in many of the globe’s most advanced economies such as Japan, USA and Europe. In seeking to address the impact of this issue, policy-makers are often heavil  focussed on the social and economic consequences of aging populations, such as a reduction in economic growth or increased pressures on public expenditure. However some have argued that policy should instead be more future-focussed, supporting states to build greater resilience to demographic changes and ensuring resources are redistributed to maintain wellbeing across the life course.