Integrated care for children living with complex care needs: navigating the long and winding road

An increasing number of children are living with complex care needs resulting from multiple concurrent conditions. Due to these conditions, various health problems can arise and necessitate screening, prevention, and treatment at different ages during childhood. Each child has an individual constellation and combination of health problems, which implies that multiple health and social care providers across various sectors are required to address these health problems.

Regional technical meeting on integrated care delivery

This report summarizes the discussion that took place during the Regional technical meeting on integrated care delivery. It represents a continuation of the discussion held as part of the Regional technical meeting on strengthening the integrated delivery of long-term care in the European region, in December 2021, bringing an expanded focus on integration as a transversal issue for health and long-term care systems and an important stepping stone for achieving universal health coverage. Participants discussed and shared evidence and lessons learned on the principles, the practice, the enablers and on-going challenges to improving coordination within and across health and long-term ...

Lessons learnt while integrating services for children: qualitative interviews with professional stakeholders

In the English NHS, integrated care is seen as an opportunity to deliver joined-up care for children and families. This paper examines the lessons learnt by professional stakeholders in the process of developing different examples of integrated models of care/frameworks for children’s services.

Integrated Care for Older People with Different Frailty Levels: A Qualitative Study of Local Implementation of a National Policy in Luton, England

The NHS England General Medical Services 2017-18 contract made it mandatory for general practices in England to identify and manage older people proactively. In response to the national policy, the Luton Framework for Frailty (LFF) programme was developed to target older residents of Luton and offer interventions according to their frailty level. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the LFF and the factors that affect the implementation of a proactive integrated care service for older people with different frailty levels (OPDFL).

Integrated care for children living with complex care needs: an evolutionary concept analysis

Children with complex care needs (CCNs) are in need of improved access to healthcare services, communication, and support from healthcare professionals to ensure high-quality care is delivered to meet their needs.

Integrated care is viewed as a key component of care delivery for children with CCNs, as it promotes the integration of healthcare systems to provide family and child-centred care across the entire health spectrum. There are many definitions and frameworks that support integrated care, but there is a lack of conceptual clarity around the term. Furthermore, it is often unclear how integrated care can be delivered to children with ...

Improving home care sustainability in Ireland. Are user charges a promising option?

There are often concerns that population ageing will cause health and long-term care expenditures to grow uncontrollably. A key question facing decision-makers is what, if anything, can be done in response? In this report we consider whether user charges would improve the financial sustainability of home care in Ireland, a country which is ageing at a rate similar to other high income countries.

We find that user charges are an inefficient tool to try to reduce the home care financing gap. Evidence suggests that the revenues raised for home care through user charges are negligible in other high income countries ...

Development of a Person-Centred Integrated Care Approach for Chronic Disease Management in Dutch Primary Care: A Mixed-Method Study

To reduce the burden of chronic diseases on society and individuals, European countries implemented chronic Disease Management Programs (DMPs) that focus on the management of a single chronic disease. However, due to the fact that the scientific evidence that DMPs reduce the burden of chronic diseases is not convincing, patients with multimorbidity may receive overlapping or conflicting treatment advice, and a single disease approach may be conflicting with the core competencies of primary care. In addition, in the Netherlands, care is shifting from DMPs to person-centred integrated care (PC-IC) approaches.

‘Sometimes you need an eye-opener’: A qualitative study on nursing assistants' experiences of developing communication skills through an educational intervention on person-centred communication

To explore nursing assistants' (NAs') experiences of developing communication skills while participating in an educational intervention on person-centred communication. The findings describe NAs' experiences concerning the communication skills needed for building relationships with older persons and handling emotionally challenging situations. The educational intervention increased their knowledge and awareness of the importance of communication skills and how such skills are developed and refined.

Editorial: Why changes in primary care will affect integrated care

More and more emphasis in health service integration is placed on the role of primary care. What it means to have a “family doctor” may have changed over the last decades, but its key function of assessing, referring and treating patients remains the bedrock of our health systems. Or does it?

Construct Validation of the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care Measurement Tool in Dutch Primary Care for Older Adults

are integration in primary elderly care is suboptimal. Validated instruments are needed to enable the implementation of integrated primary care. We aimed to assess construct validity of the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care measurement tool (RMIC-MT) for healthcare professionals working in an integrated primary elderly care setting in the Netherlands.