Achieving integrated care: the need for digital empowerment

In this article, Knight and Burdett look at the complex challenges involved in integrating care systems as part of the NHS Long-Term Plan of 2019, and the importance of digitalising services and records for implementing this.

Successful implementation of integrated care in Slovenian primary care

For the purpose of celebrating the 40th anniversary of Alma Ata declaration, the WHO published a successful model of integrated patient care being performed in Slovenia. After two years, the WHO experts evaluated the success in practise during a visit to the Slovenian primary care environment. This report showed that Slovenia was a notable exception regarding developing effective primary care systems. The country has an impressive primary care which performs very well.

Patient engagement, autonomy, access to mental care services – the case for integrated care in Crete

Access to comprehensive primary care (PC) services is imperative to address the complex biopsychosocial needs of patients with mental illness and their families, while it holds the potential to safeguard mental health and enhance resilience in communities. Integration of mental health and social care services in primary care has not yet been achieved, while access to such services for the mentally ill is still hindered by patient-, provider- and system-oriented barriers. Improving service integration, quality and access requires active engagement of patients and families in the design and planning of services.

Interprofessional collaboration, interdisciplinary approaches and sound deliberative processes are ...

Policy framework for building integrated care for TB patients in Romania: setting up the scene

Factors supporting the implementation of integrated care between physical and mental health services: an integrative review

In Australia and internationally there is a strong policy commitment to the redesign of health services toward integrated physical and mental health care. When executed well, integrated care has been demonstrated to improve the access to, clinical outcomes from, and quality of care while reducing overtreatment and duplication. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness and promise of integrated care, exactly how integrated care is best achieved remains less clear. The aim of this review study was to identify factors that support the implementation of integrated care between physical and mental health services. An integrative review was conducted following the framework developed by ...

JICA Special Issue: Integrated Palliative and End of Life Care for People with Advanced Dementia or Frailty

This special issue now seems uncannily prescient in view of the devastating impact of COVID-19 on people with advanced dementia or severe frailty, particularly in care homes.

The pandemic has heightened awareness of the possibility of a sudden and rapid transition from relative health to a palliative or end of life stage. This has opened up conversations about the potential burden from intensive treatments that are likely to be futile and the benefits of advance care planning.

The collection of papers in this special issue will be of interest to readers involved in planning, commissioning or delivering palliative and end ...

State of Commitment to Universal Health Coverage

The State of commitment to universal health coverage (UHC) provides a multi-stakeholder consolidated view on the state of progress being made towards UHC at country and global levels.

The review is political, country-focused and action-oriented in nature and complements the more technical and global UHC monitoring report focusing on UHC indicators on service coverage and financial protection.

The State of UHC Commitment  follows the UHC Political Declaration’s Key Targets, Commitments and Follow-up Actions and support national accountability and advocacy processes to ensure political leaders are held accountable for their UHC commitments.

The synthesis report summarises the state of UHC ...

Integrating patient complexity into health policy: a conceptual framework

Clinicians across all health professions increasingly strive to add value to the care they deliver through the application of the central tenets of people-centred care (PCC), namely the ‘right care’, in the ‘right place’, at the ‘right time’ and ‘tailored to the needs of communities’.

This ideal is being hampered by a lack of a structured, evidence-based means to formulate policy and value the commissioning of services in an environment of increasing appreciation for the complex health needs of communities. This creates significant challenges for policy makers, commissioners and providers of health services. Communities face a complex intersection of challenges ...

Effect of an integrated care model for pre-frail and frail older people living in community

The objective of this article is to evaluate the effect of an integrated care model for pre-frail and frail community-dwelling older people.

Care Coordination for Vulnerable Families in the Sydney Local Health District: What Works for Whom, under What Circumstances, and Why?

 Healthy Homes and Neighbourhoods (HHAN), an integrated care programme in the Sydney Local Health District (SLHD), seeks to address the needs of disadvantaged families through care coordination, as one of its components. This research aims to determine for whom, when and why the care coordination component of HHAN works, and establish the reported outcomes for clients, service-providers and partner organisations.