{"id":3133,"date":"2018-06-01T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/?p=3133"},"modified":"2018-06-01T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:14:52","slug":"integrated-care-from-an-international-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/2018\/06\/01\/integrated-care-from-an-international-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrated care from an international perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jo Moriarty<\/strong><\/a> is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit.<\/em> (578 words)<\/p>\n

\"\"The 18th<\/sup> International Conference on Integrated Care was hosted by the International Foundation of Integrated Care (IFIC) in partnership with the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM and Vilans (the National Centre of Expertise for Long-term Care in the Netherlands) in Utrecht from 23-25 May 2018.\u00a0 Michelle Cornes and I were both fortunate to be among the 800 or so delegates attending the conference.<\/p>\n

The increase in the number of people with complex long-term conditions whose support needs span traditional boundaries across health, social care and housing has led to many developments aimed at improving collaboration across different organisations and enhancing quality of care for individuals.\u00a0 However, there is no single definition of what is meant by \u2018integrated care\u2019.<\/p>\n

In the same way, one of the Dutch delegates spoke of the policy of providing \u2018care closer to home\u2019.\u00a0 In England, this phrase refers to plans to deliver more healthcare away from acute hospitals and into community-based settings.\u00a0 In The Netherlands, it refers to a decision taken in 2015 to make municipalities responsible for healthcare services for older people and those with long term conditions, youth care, and help for jobseekers.\u00a0 As there are 380 municipalities in The Netherlands serving a population of 17 million, it makes for a system in which there is much more emphasis on devolution and \u2018neighbourhoods\u2019.\u00a0 It was an interesting insight into alternative models of funding and structures.<\/p>\n

The conference was also a chance for the Social Care Workforce Research Unit to introduce its new project<\/a> funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust on relations between primary care workers and directly employed care workers or personal assistants.\u00a0 This complements other Unit work on personal assistants and personal budgets.<\/a> While there is an established body of work on interprofessional relationships in integrated care, we know almost nothing about the triangular relationships between older people who employ their own care workers, the directly employed care workers themselves, and primary care professionals.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a primary care practitioner, directly employed worker, or older person or care directly employing a care worker using a direct payment or your own funds, then do please contact us if you\u2019re interested in taking part.<\/p>\n

In a conference in which the overwhelming number of presenters came from a healthcare background, it was a huge compliment to Michelle\u2019s expertise and a sign of the quality of work undertaken within the Unit that hers was one of just five papers shortlisted for the best paper award which is given to the most innovative, relevant and impactful presentation.\u00a0 In a very lively and engaging session, Michelle presented findings from the Unit study comparing standard hospital discharge arrangements for homeless people with specialist integrated care services<\/a>.\u00a0 This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research and is due to report later in the year.<\/p>\n

Overall, the conference highlighted the huge range of services that come under the \u2018integrated care\u2019 umbrella and illustrated how the form that it takes is located in wider decisions about organisational structure and culture, the extent to which consumers (in the form of the general public, patients and family carers) are involved in decisions about services, and different funding arrangements.\u00a0 The conference couldn\u2019t provide a definitive answer to the \u2018holy grail\u2019 question about how best to integrate services but it certainly showcased many examples of good practice and effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Jo Moriarty<\/strong><\/a> is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jo Moriarty is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit. (578 words) The 18th International Conference on Integrated Care was hosted by the International Foundation of Integrated Care (IFIC) in partnership with the National … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,72],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences","category-integration","tag-jo-moriarty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3143,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions\/3143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/socialcareworkforce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}