4th International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-term Care

The 4th International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-term Care will be held from 4th to 7th of September 2016 at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London. Building on the success of the three previous editions, the conference will focus on empirical research with direct relevance to long-term care policy offering an opportunity to debate with international experts policy issues related to the organisation, delivery, funding and regulation of long-term care services.

Some of the main thematic areas to be covered include: care models; case management; economics of long-term care; equity and efficiency; funding systems; health and social care integration; housing and care; institutional dynamics and politics; international comparative analysis; local vs. central policy interactions; personalisation of the care system; policy implications of dementia; service commissioning and regulation; technology and long-term care; unpaid carers; workforce and migrant workers. Abstracts on other relevant LTC policy evaluation topics will ...

How to place citizen's perspective in the centre of public policies.

Placing people in the centre of health system’s design needs to understand what are the people’s perspectives about public policies and what public policies would people prefer. Frequently, public policies aiming to introduce big changes in health systems fail at getting a high acceptance by the citizens.

In this post, published in The Impact Blogs, hosted by the London School of Economics, it is described a framework which aims to align the perspectives of policymakers and citizens, and proposes two mains ways to get to a confluence between these two stakeholders: adjusting the policy frame or trying to influence on citizens’ frame.

The authors of this article applied this framework to a couple of policies, related to support for victims and confidence in the judiciary.

Health assessments for health governance—concepts and methodologies

For better supporting the science-governance interface, the potencial of health assessments appears underrated. The aims of this study are to identify what various types of health assessment have in common, how they differ; which assessments to apply for which purpose; and what needs and options there are for future joint development. 

Financing Long-Term Services and Supports: Ideas From Singapore

Financing long-term services and supports (LTSS) for the elderly is a pressing issue in the Unites States with reforms of long-term care insurance (LTCI) presently being explored. Singapore, with 65% of residents aged 40 to 83 covered by basic LTCI, including 22% with supplementary LTCI plans, has the highest voluntary LTCI rate in the world. This article contributes to the discourse by presenting the case of LTSS financing in Singapore. 

Effective Organizational Leadership in the Implementation of Integrated Care; Lessons from 9 cases in the iCoach Project

Policy makers in many countries are encouraging the development of integrated care strategies and the development of new models of integrated care. These new models require changes at a clinical or service level, organizational level and system level with strong leadership necessary at all three levels. Despite the key role of leadership in these efforts, there has been only limited study of what organizational leadership approach is successful in different contexts for integrated care. 

Individual determinants of integrated care for indigent patients: an experimental study in Brussels: Pierre Smith

In metropolitan area, socially deprived patients with chronic disease undergo the fragmentation of health and social care services because of their complex needs. Integration of health and social care would benefit these patientes, however, it is not feasible or appropriate to integrate all the services for all vulnerable patients. This study aims at identifying the indicidual determinants of deprived patients´preferences in integration of health and social care. 

How Do We Evaluate Health in All Policies?; Comment on “Developing a Framework for a Program Theory-Based Approach to Evaluating Policy Processes and Outcomes: Health in All Policies in South Australia”

It is well-established that population health is influenced by a multitude of factors, many of which lie outside the scope of the health sector. In the public health literature it is often assumed that intersectoral engagement with nonhealth sectors will be instrumental in addressing these social determinants of health. Due to the expected desirable outcomes in population health, several countries have introduced Health in All Policies (HiAP). However, whether this systematic, top-down approach to whole-of-government action (which HiAP entails) is efficient in changing government policies remains unclear. A systematic evaluation of HiAP is therefore much needed

Implementing health care reform: implications for performance of public hospitals in central Ethiopia

Understanding the way health care reforms have succeeded or failed thus far would help policy makers cater continued reformefforts in the future and provides insight into possible levels of improvementin the health care system. This work aims to assess and describe the implications of health care reform on the performance of public hospitals in central Ethiopia.

Evaluating Health in All Policies; Comment on “Developing a Framework for a Program Theory-Based Approach to Evaluating Policy Processes and Outcomes: Health in All Policies in South Australia”

Health in All Policies (HiAP) has gained attention as a potential tool to address complex health and societal challenges at global, regional, national and subnational levels. In a recent article, Lawless et al propose an evaluation framework developed in the context of the South Australia HiAP initiative. Strategies, mediators, activities and impacts identified in the framework could potentially be useful for evaluating HiAP in other settings. Creating and sustaining political will, managing conflicts of interest and achieving financially, politically and conceptually sustainable HiAP initiatives are challenges that could be further strengthened in the current framework.

New models of home care

Policy-makers have outlined their ambitions to provide joined-up care closer to home and enable people to remain independent and in their own homes. Home care will be a central component of realising these ambitions. However, there are serious concerns about the state of the home care market
and the quality of care service users receive.
In this case, the present report summarises the evidence on innovations and models of home care that demonstrate potential in the following key opportunity areas:
1. Technology and digital
2. Co-ordinated care planning
3. Recruitment and retention
4. Autonomous team working
5. Alternative approaches to commissioning
6. Personalisation
7. Integrated care approaches
8. Community assets and connections
9. Family-based support and communal living
.

Citizens as Active Participants in Integrated Care: Challenging the Field’s Dominant Paradigms

Policy makers, practitioners and academics often claim that care users and other citizens should be ‘at the center’ of care integration pursuits. Nonetheless, the field of integrated care tends to approach these constituents as passive recipients of professional and managerial efforts. This paper critically reflects on this discrepancy, which, it contend, indicates both a key objective and an ongoing challenge of care integration;  the need to reconcile the professional, organizational and institutional frameworks by which care work is structured with  the diversity and diffuseness that is inherent to pursuits of active user and citizen participation. 

Service Delivery Models to Maximize Quality of Life for Older People at the End of Life: A Rapid Review

In an era of unprecedented global aging, a key priority is to align health and social services for older populations in order to support the dual priorities of living well while adapting to a gradual decline in function. The aimed of this review was to provide a comprehensive synthesis of evidence regarding service delivery models that optimize the quality of life (QoL) for older people at the end of life across health, social, and welfare services worldwide.

Closing the gap: Key areas for action on the health and care workforce

Staffing is the make-or-break issue for the NHS in England. Workforce shortages are already having a direct impact on patient care and staff experience. Urgent action is now required to avoid a vicious cycle of growing shortages and declining quality. The workforce implementation plan to be published later this year presents a pivotal opportunity to do this. In this joint report with the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, they set out a series of policy actions that, evidence suggests, should be at the heart of the workforce implementation plan. They focus on nursing and general practice, where the workforce problems are particularly severe.

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis of Integrated Care Webinar – SELFIE Project

Professionals are increasingly keen to assess the effects of integrated care initiatives and payers and policy makers are keen to ensure that they allocate scarce resources only to services that have proven value for money. When evaluating the added value of complex interventions such as integrated care initiatives, we need to adopt a broad, inclusive method of evaluation and a holistic, person-centered understanding of ‘value’. This is possible with Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). MCDA is a method to improve transparency of decision-making that makes the impact that multiple criteria have on a decision, and their relative importance explicit. It is particularly suited for interventions where multiple, sometimes conflicting, criteria play a role, and the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders about the importance of decision-criteria need to be taken into account. In this webinar prof.dr. Maureen Rutten-van Mölken of the Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management of the Erasmus ...

Integrated care for older people (ICOPE) implementation framework: guidance for systems and services

Alongside supporting community-level services, the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) approach helps broader health and social care systems effectively respond to the diverse and complex needs of older people. The ICOPE Implementation Framework provides guidance for policy makers and programme managers to concretely assess and measure the capacity of services and systems to deliver integrated care at the community level.

The ICOPE Implementation Framework provides a score card to help assess the overall capacity of health and social care services and systems to deliver integrated care in community settings and support the development of ICOPE implementation action plans. There are 19 actions needed to implement ICOPE on the services level (meso) and systems level (macro). The scoring process provides an evidence-based means of highlighting areas for improvement as well as establishing concrete measures of future improvements.

Ghana country assessment report on ageing and health

Ghana, like many other countries, is experiencing a demographic transition with its ageing population. To provide reliable evidence for policy-making in ageing and health, this assessment report is prepared to identify priority issues on ageing in Ghana. By reviewing evidence from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) in Ghana and other sources, this document reveals the health status of older people in Ghana as well as the health systems response and policies relevant to ageing. The report also proposed 5 priorities relating to the prevention, treatment and care needs of older people in Ghana.

The Generation of Integration: The Early Experience of Implementing Bundled Care in Ontario, Canada

By bundling services and encouraging interprofessional and interorganizational collaboration, integrated health care models counter fragmented health care delivery and rising system costs.
While research has been conducted on the facilitators and challenges of integration, there is less known about how integration is generated. This article explores the generation of integration through the dynamic interplay of contexts and mechanisms and of structures and subjects.

Consultation on the Handbook on Social Participation for UHC for civil society

UHC2030, WHO and the UHC Partnership have launched a consultation for civil society to provide substantial feedback on the contents of the Handbook on Social Participation for UHC. The ‘Handbook on Social Participation for UHC’ will provide specific best practice guidance to policymakers on how to effectively and meaningfully engage with populations, civil society and communities for policy- and decision-making.

The Handbook is in an advanced stage of development and your views would be useful to shape the final document. Currently, you can comment on the overview of five of the chapters through a survey until February 2020.

See more information about the handbook and an overview presentation.

Celebrating the 4th anniversary of the approval of the WHO Framework on integrated and people-centred health services: progress and opportunities ahead

This month marks the fourth anniversary of the approval of the Framework on integrated people-centred health services (IPCHS) and its accompanying resolution WHA69.24 (2016) on “Strengthening integrated people-centred health services” by the World Health Assembly. In May 2016, Member States showed exceptional support to these global commitments and requested WHO to help them implement, adapt, and operationalize this Framework. However, this was not the first time WHO recognized the relevance of health services being managed and delivered so that people, who are active participants of health systems, receive a continuum of care according to their needs throughout the life course. Other previous WHO global and regional commitments, including “People-centred health care: a policy framework” produced by the Western Pacific Region in 2007, the “World health report 2008 on primary health care: now more than ever”, and resolution WHA62.12 (2009) on Primary health care, including health system strengthening, had ...