On June 4th 2019, IFIC met with the steering committee of the Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm) in Brussels. Over three-year and four conferences, IFIC is the content partner of this collaborative learning process, which involves the mapping of promising practices of integrated community care, the management and facilitation of conference programs, conference background papers and reports and the organisation of local site visits.
Half way through the program period, with two successfully arranged conferences and two more avaiting, IFIC met with the forum’s steering committee to discuss the key lessons learnt and prepare for the final tasks ahead.
Over the course of the first two conferences, about 200 delegates representing policy makers with a cross-sectorial view, professionals leading organisations working on community care, experts and practitioners advocating for integrated community care, community leaders and representatives of the philanthropic sector, have attended the conferences. They have engaged in discussions about the key tenets of integrated community care and been showcased successful and promising cases of bottom-up, people-driven health and social care. The first TransForm conference: “Making the case for integrated community care” took place in Hamburg, Germany, September 24-26, 2018 and the second: “Towards people-driven care. Engaging and empowering individuals, carers and families through integrated community care” in Turin, Italy, February 26-27, 2019. Find out more information on this conference and watch the highlights video here .
So far, we have learnt that the emerging concept of integrated community care has at its core purpose to improve quality of care and quality of life to vulnerable individuals, families and communities. Its mode of action is grounded in community health – the ability to maintain, protect and improve the health of all members of local communities through sustained community efforts. Strong communities are supported by effective coordination of care through inter-sectoral collaborations underpinned by co-creative partnerships where people’s skills, needs and experience are recognized and play a key role in decision-making.
Next on the agenda is the third conference “Building stronger communities through integrated community care” taking place in Vancouver, Canada, October 2-4, 2019 and the final conference in Brussels the first quarter of 2020. This last conference will specifically target high level European policy makers and senior level professionals and practitioners. This is when the final messages and recommendations about how to make integrated care happen, will be planned.
Visit the TransForm webpage to find in-depth literature about the fundamental elements of integrated community care, such as people-driven care, asset-based community development and the new roles this entails for health and social care professionals, leaders and policy makers.
TransForm is funded by Network of European Foundations (NEF) and supported by the International Foundation for Integrated Care.
Monica Sørensen
Senior Researcher
International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)