Commentary: how person-centred is pharmaceutical care?

Integration of mental health counselling into chronic disease services at the primary health care level: Formative research on dedicated versus designated strategies in the Western Cape, South Africa

To explore health care providers’ views on the acceptability and feasibility of two models for integrating facility-based counsellor delivered mental health counselling into chronic disease care, and how such an approach could be improved in South Africa.

Although study participants unanimously agreed that counselling for common mental disorders should be integrated into chronic disease services, they had differing views on the type of model that should be adopted. 

Implementation of Integrated Primary Care for Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension: A Case from Slovenia

Research on models of integrated health care for hypertension and diabetes is one of the priority issues in the world. There is a lack of knowledge about how integrated care is implemented in practice. Our study assessed its implementation in six areas: identification of patients, treatment, health education, self-management support, structured collaboration and organisation of care.

Social work student reflections on training in integrated care: opportunities for social work educators

Integrated care, an approach designed to improve health/ behavioral health outcomes and increase quality of life, has received international interest. Given the important roles social workers play in this approach, American universities have begun novel training programs to better prepare social workers to work in integrated care. The aim of this study is to better understand the experiences of recent MSW trainees, and how they can inform future educational/ training programs. Focus groups of MSW students who recently completed integrated care training programs were conducted (N = 9). Content analysis of the focus group data resulted in three main themes: Gaps ...

The conceptualisation of patient-centred care: A case study of diabetes management in public facilities in southern Malawi

Patient-centred care (PCC) is one of the pillars of Malawi’s quality of care policyinitiatives. The role of PCC in facilitating quality service delivery is well documented, and its importance may heighten in chronic disease management. Yet, PCC conceptualisation is known to be context specific. The prominent themes emerging from the participants’ conceptualisation of PCC included the following: meeting individual needs, goals and expectations, accessing medication, supporting relationship building, patient involvement, information sharing, holistic care, timeliness and being realistic.

Diverse clinical and social circumstances: developing patient-centred care for DR-TB patients in South Africa

To describe the medical, socio-economic and geographical profiles of patients with rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) and the implications for the provision of patient-centred care.

RR-TB patients had diverse medical and social challenges highlighting the need for integrated, differentiated and patient-centred healthcare to better address specific needs and underlying vulnerabilities of individual patients.

Patient-Centred Care for Patients With Diabetes and HIV at a Public Tertiary Hospital in South Africa: An Ethnographic Study

Healthcare systems across the globe are adopting patient-centred care (PCC) approach to empower patients in taking charge of their illnesses and improve the quality of care. Although models of patient?centredness vary, respecting the needs and preferences of individuals receiving care is important. South Africa has implemented an integrated chronic disease management (ICDM) which has PCC component. The ICDM aims to empower chronic care patients to play an active role in disease management process, whilst simultaneously intervening at a community/ population and health service level. However, chronic care is still fragmented due to systemic challenges that have hindered the practice ...

Navigate Your Health: A Case Study of Organisational Learnings from an Integrated Care Pilot for Children and Young People in Care

Three peak organisations in Queensland, Australia partnered with consumers and other health and social sector partners to co-design and pilot the first known integrated, health navigation model to improve outcomes for children and young people in care in Australia. Findings highlighted the agency partners’ drive to foster a more integrated and person-centred approach to care. The pilot’s aim of improving health outcomes for a vulnerable population were achieved through a co-designed process which provided additional insights regarding partnerships, improvement, scalability and sustainability.

Targeting integrated care to those most likely to need frequent health care: a review of social and clinical risk factors

This rapid review was commissioned by the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) and the Sax Institute in Australia to examine the evidence concerning social and clinical risk factors which may be significant predictors of both pre-hospital and hospital service utilisation. The context is that the NSW Ministry of Health wishes to develop a NSW approach for risk stratification and patient selection that identifies people who are at risk(s) of poorer health outcome(s), and enable targeted delivery of integrated care to those who will maximally benefit.

Integrated care: easy in theory, harder in practice?

Integrated care (IC) is a term now commonly adopted across the world, which implies a positive attitude towards addressing fragmentation of service provision inside health systems. While the principles of IC are simple, their implementation is more controversial. The ever growing number of IC definitions is related to the increasing domains of applications, which reflect the increasing demand induced by ageing multi-morbid patients. An exhaustive definition of IC should now enclose the coordination of health and social services useful to deliver seamless care across organizational boundaries. The current debate on IC is largely fueled by the modern mismatch between the ...