Introduction

Caring for Older Persons

Dr. Dra Gro

Project Technical Assistant, FP5
QoL
 Background
the rising number of older people either healthy
or suffering from different age-related illnesses and
requiring long-term care - will increase the pressure
on the public sector (forecast for the increase of
public expenditure on health care for the period
2000-2050 is 0.7-2.3 GDP points)
the increase in the number of smaller and more
unstable family structures (and the rising
employment rate of women) could undermine the
family networks of solidarity and make the
provision of care within families more difficult to
continue
consequently the care for older persons is not only
a matter for the conventional health system, but
also for the social sector
Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 2
 Trends in elder care
introducing a focus on prevention will help to
reduce the use of intensive and costly care
any developments in the services for healthy old
people and in acute or long-term health care for
older persons will require more and better skilled
human resources
even older people are better informed and they
expect higher quality and efficiency from social
and health care systems
social and health care consumers feel that they
need to be considered as fully-fledged partners
and players and they expect greater transparency
on the performance and quality of care services

Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 3

 How can research contribute to
the improvement of elder care?

Networking of related efforts

Integration of social and health care
Promotion and support of family care
Improvement of care by patient involvement
Supporting the autonomy of older people,
prevention of disability
Special cases: minorities, marginalization

Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 4

 CARMEN
Care and Management of Services for Older People
in Europe Network

a cross-national comparison of methods for integrated care

(40 organizations from 11 countries) was performed
European Research and Policy Agendas were developed and
sent to Ministries of Health, EU officials, MEPs
a Policy Framework was developed for the
integrated care of older people www.ehma.org
the project contributed to WHOs
glossary of terms for community health
care and services for older persons
a Resource Book was compiled for
managers on integrated care for older people;
during 2005, this resource book (200 pages)
was downloaded 17,141 times.

Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 5

 PROCARE
Providing Integrated Health and Social Care for
Older Persons in Europe
Aim: defining the new concept of an integrated health and
social care for older persons in need of care by comparing and
evaluating different modes of care delivery by identifying
structural, organisational, economic and social-cultural
factors and actors that constitute an integrated and sustainable
care system with enhanced outcomes for all actors involved.
Findings:
development of long-term care systems is only at the
beginning: governance, investment and innovation
decisions, organisational development, training and new
job-profiles are needed
integration of health and social care is to be put on the social
policy agenda in all countries
www.euro.centre.org /procare

Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 6

Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 7
The project studied
the balance between family care and service systems and its
relation to older peoples quality of life;
variations in family norms and transfers (intergenerational
solidarity) across age cohorts;
how individuals and families cope when there i a risk of
dependency.
Findings:
family help is higher in countries with lower service level;
the preferred model for elder care is a combination of family
and welfare state responsibility;
greater weight must be placed on building, protecting and
maintaining individual resources;
policy should support a redefinition of the role of family in care
provision.
Helsinki 14-15/9/2006
http://oasis.haifa.ac.il/
Dora Groo 8
 IMPROVE
Improving general practice care for older people in
Europe
Aim: develop and test methods to increase older patients
involvement in general practice care in Europe
Results:
four instruments to involve older patients were tested in a pilot
study and appeared to be well accepted by GPs and patients
a consultation leaflet was developed aiming to enhance
appropriate utilization of general practice among older adults
GPs thought that involvement of older persons was positive, as it
would support the responsibility of the patient
patients were positive about being involved, but most thought
that responsibility for medical decision should remain with the GP
http://oase.uci.ru.nl/~improve/
Conclusion: improving involvement of older patients in general
practice may need more time as it requires a change of culture.
Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 9
 MEC
Minority elder care
The project aimed to
investigate quality and effectiveness of health
social care services to minority ethnic (ME) elders, draw attention to
their needs and improve provision of services for this group.
Statistically significant research evidence was produced on the
circumstances and opinions of 25 different ethnic groups across
Europe in UK, F, NL, D, E, FIN, HU, BA, CR and CH
Main findings:
- family is important to ME elders; they desire to remain independent
- general health reported is poor or very poor; there is premature
ageing among some groups
- in spite of poor health reported, services are under used
- the needs of ME elders are only partly met due to cultural,
organisational and societal reasons
The MEC research is a wake up call for policymakers in all EU
institutions, Stephen Hughes, MEP UK
Helsinki 14-15/9/2006 Dora Groo 10