Blog

Reducing vacancy rates in the social care sector requires funded research now

By Niamh Daly Day / May 29, 2023
Reducing vacancy rates in the social care sector requires funded research now As an academic who thinks that research can have a positive impact I am always seeking the core challenges worthy of research, and the money to do that research properly. At a recent conference on the future of Social Care in Scotland I… Read More

Integrated Care – Redesigning how we work in healthcare

By Niamh Daly Day / April 3, 2023
Integrated Care - Redesigning how we work in healthcare Dr Susan Kent, Associate Professor Dublin City University (DCU) IFIC Senior Associate IFIC is delighted to celebrate World Health Worker Week with people and organisations globally. Earlier this month the WHO announced the end of the global Covid-19 pandemic[1]. Health workforces and organisations could be forgiven… Read More

Integrated Care Perspective for Children with Cancer

By Niamh Daly Day / February 15, 2023
Integrated Care Perspective for Children with Cancer Norbert Graf, Saarland University Hospital Today, Wednesday 15th February is with International Childhood Cancer Day. Professor Dr. Norbert Graf, medical director of the Department for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Saarland University Hospital, reminds us of the needs of children and families with cancer and the importance of… Read More

The Waterloo Health and Wellbeing Peer Education Program

By Miriam Galvin / January 12, 2023

In 2021, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) participated in the IFIC Autumn School. Over the week, a group comprising SLHD staff, NSW Department of Communities and Justice Housing staff, non-government agencies, social housing tenants and other community members were tasked with designing an integrated care intervention to better support the health and wellbeing needs of residents of the Waterloo social housing estate, in inner Sydney NSW, and improve communication between services and residents.

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Another record-breaking year at IJIC

By Admin / December 21, 2022
More than 200 submissions were received and almost 100 papers published during 2022. The 20th anniversary editorial has been published, following the launch of the special issue. Always Look on the Bright Side – Lessons Learned from Another Decade of Integrating Care (ijic.org) At ICIC22, IJIC hosted a very successful World Café session dedicated to… Read More

IFIC Scotland: Looking through the Rear Mirror

By Admin / December 21, 2022
As we reflect on 2022 our highlight was undoubtedly reconnecting with IFICs global community at ICIC22. Marie Curran supported IFICs communications team by recording voices of lived experience from across the globe to ground the opening plenary. Vicki Cloney and Ann Wardlaw were runners up in the Patient and Caregiver award for their paper about… Read More

Focusing on people, families, and communities in Latin America (IFIC LatAm)

By Admin / December 21, 2022
In Latin America, a participatory process has been developed, promoted by an enthusiastic group of people with diverse academic and professional backgrounds, with experience in integrated care and health systems, from various universities, research centers, foundations, associations, networks, as well as other people who get involved as independent professionals. IFIC LatAm makes a decisive contribution… Read More

IFIC Ireland – a year of change and growth

By Admin / December 21, 2022
After the pandemic held back our in-person activity, this year was a great opportunity to build on our remote activity and create new opportunities for integrated care in Ireland. All-Ireland Conference for Integrated Care in Dublin In March, we held the first annual All-Ireland Conference for Integrated Care in Dublin. This in-person event was a… Read More

A busy year for IFIC supporting a range of EU-funded projects

By Admin / December 21, 2022
PROCare4Life PROCare4Life over 2022 could analyse the results of pilot 2 and launch pilot 3, supported by a multilingual survey to expand the knowledge about its future users' preferences. After COVID19, we could finally meet in person in Madrid Consortium meeting. Specific multimedia training materials were created, to support the additional and refined functionalities that… Read More

Effectively Addressing Diabetes

By Niamh Daly Day / November 14, 2022
Effectively Addressing Diabetes Douglas Tynan PhD., Sidney Kimmel Medical School, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia PA Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose. Hyperglycemia, also called raised blood… Read More

Educational Determinants of Health

By Niamh Daly Day / October 26, 2022
Educational Determinants of Health If you work in healthcare anywhere in the world, and I ask you about how your organization is retaining its clinical workforce, I’ll bet you’d respond with one of the following: an enormous sigh, a hearty laugh, or (god forbid) a quip about how “no one wants to work anymore.”  … Read More

A look back on Self Management Month 2022: Celebrating Change

By Niamh Daly Day / October 13, 2022
         A look back on Self Management Month 2022: Celebrating Change The ALLIANCE hosts a national self management awareness raising campaign each year. This year, it took the form of Self Management Month , running throughout September and focusing on Celebrating Change as its central theme. Throughout the month, we hosted a… Read More

World Mental Health Day 2022 – Please, No More Mental Health Service Silos!

By Niamh Daly Day / October 10, 2022
World Mental Health Day 2022 – Please, No More Mental Health Service Silos! David Burke, Senior Staff Specialist and Clinical Lead in Older People’s Mental Health at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and Associate Professor, Discipline of Psychiatry, the University of Notre Dame There is no health without mental health (WHO, 2005); so, mental health for… Read More

Healing Hearts and Communities: the power of compassion

By Niamh Daly Day / October 7, 2022
Healing Hearts and Communities: the power of compassion Silvia Librada Flores, New Health Foundation This Sunday, 9th October is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day with the theme ‘Healing Hearts and Communities’[1]. It is a beautiful theme that refers to the concepts of compassion and Compassionate communities, which are now core pillars of palliative care… Read More

Building health and care system resilience and recovery

By Niamh Daly Day / September 22, 2022
Building health and care system resilience and recovery Niamh Lennox-Chhugani, Edelweiss Aldasoro and Alejandro Gil Salmeron In April 2020, one month after many countries across the world went into lockdown and health and care systems in many countries were dealing with the consequences of the pandemic, the International Foundation for Integrated Care launched a webinar… Read More

World Alzheimer´s Day: The spotlight is on post-diagnostic support

By Niamh Daly Day / September 21, 2022
World Alzheimer´s Day: The spotlight is on post-diagnostic support Nereide Curreri, MSc, PhD September 21st is World Alzheimer's day. In 1994 on September 21st the association Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) celebrated their 10th anniversary by inaugurating the first World Alzheimer's day. The day brings awareness: a spotlight on dementia, on the people living with dementia,… Read More

Recent OECD Publication: International comparisons of the quality and outcomes of integrated care: Findings of the OECD pilot on stroke and chronic heart failure

By Niamh Daly Day / August 4, 2022
Recent OECD Publication: International comparisons of the quality and outcomes of integrated care: Findings of the OECD pilot on stroke and chronic heart failure OECD Health Working Paper No. 142, May 2022, Eliana Barrenho, Philip Haywood, Candan Kendir and Niek Klazinga Across OECD countries, two in three people aged over 65 years live with at… Read More

Leading an innovative approach to prevention, community care and integration of care in Ireland – Online Workshop at ICIC22

By Niamh Daly Day / July 15, 2022
Leading an innovative approach to prevention, community care and integration of care in Ireland – Online Workshop at ICIC22 Sláintecare Department of Health & HSE in association with IFIC Ireland as part of 22nd International Conference on Integrated Care The Sláintecare Action Plan 2019 established the building blocks for a significant shift in the way… Read More

More than structures – the introduction of Regional Health Areas in Ireland

By Niamh Daly Day / April 19, 2022

More than structures – the introduction of Regional Health Areas in Ireland  Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani, Chief Executive, International Foundation for Integrated Care.    The Department of Health in Ireland published the long-awaited business case for the establishment of Regional Health Areas (RHAs) this week as Cabinet approved the case. The Chief Executive of the Health…

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World Health Worker Week April 4 – 8, 2022
Build the Health Workforce Back Better

By Admin / April 7, 2022

Time is what the Health Workforce mostly need IFIC wants to join organisations and people around the world to celebrate the World Health Worker Week and acknowledge the efforts that our health and care workforce have been making to embrace the contemporary challenges of our care systems. Our workforce are bearing the brunt of the…

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Consequences of war for people: destroyed continuity of care now, lack of care provision later

By Niamh Daly Day / March 16, 2022

Consequences of war for people: destroyed continuity of care now, lack of care provision later Since 24th February 2022, we have all seen the images from Ukraine. At the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people and most particularly with people living with long-term care needs, their family, carers…

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Developing a new model of information systems and Electronic Health Records in Catalonia

By Niamh Daly Day / February 16, 2022

Developing a new model of information systems and Electronic Health Records in Catalonia Dr Josep Vidal-Alaball, Head of the Central Catalonia Primary Care Innovation and Research Unit, Institut Català de la Salut    Catalonia, located in the northeast Spain and with a population of 7.7 million habitants, has a health care system that provides publicly…

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Health and Social Care Reform in Scotland – What Next?

By Niamh Daly Day / January 27, 2022

Health and Social Care Reform in Scotland – What Next?   A New Year is a time for reflecting on achievements, identifying new goals and making resolutions for the year ahead. This year, our resolutions are all about the 3 Rs: Recovering health, mental wellbeing, social and economic activities for people and communities; Remobilisation of…

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Sing the Change: What a Wonderful World Connected and Distant

By Niamh Daly Day / November 2, 2021

Sing the Change: What A Wonderful World Connected and distant After eighteen months of restrictions and working from home with the daily commute from bedroom to workstation feeling the norm it was time to surface and try something new. For this I joined the Rock Choir and turned up to taster session not really knowing…

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Rounding up the #NACIC2021 Experience

By Niamh Daly Day / October 20, 2021

ROUNDING UP THE #NACIC2021 EXPERIENCE After hosting three informative and interactive sessions over a span of four days, our team at CBI Health was excited to be able to exchange ideas at #NACIC2021 with integrated care professionals from all around the world. Our main goal throughout the conference was to show how home care can…

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Reflections of a Patient – “One Of The Team”

By Niamh Daly Day / October 19, 2021

Reflections of a Patient –  “One Of The Team”   IFIC has really embraced person-centred care, and I believe this is the first conference I have been to that has such a high proportion of patients and caregivers. 300 of the 1000 attendees were patients or caregivers, which is fantastic. Congratulations to IFIC for making…

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Conference Plenary Summary: North American Conference on Integrated Care (NACIC)

By Niamh Daly Day / October 12, 2021
Conference Plenary Summary: North American Conference on Integrated Care (NACIC) From October 4-7, 2021, attendees came together virtually to share and learn about ‘Co-designing for health and well-being with individuals and communities’ at the first-ever North American international conference on integrated care (NACIC). Organized by the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), the conference brought… Read More

NACIC2021 – A conference remembered for deep patient and care giver involvement

By Miriam Galvin / October 8, 2021

What a great week of learning we have experienced through #NACIC2021 the 1st North American Conference on Integrated Care. This conference will be remembered for the deep patient and care-giver involvement with 300 patient and care-giver attendees.

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Journeying towards a Compassionate Community

By Niamh Daly Day / October 7, 2021

Earlier this year, we published our first blog “Reflections in a Time of Crisis: What it Takes to Manage and Lead Integrated Systems of Care”. In our second blog, we expand on the leadership lessons we are learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how leadership and management are changing to shape the future of integrated care and, ultimately, population health.

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Emerging Competencies for Leading and Managing Integrated Systems of Care in a post-COVID world: What’s next?

By Miriam Galvin / September 27, 2021

Earlier this year, we published our first blog “Reflections in a Time of Crisis: What it Takes to Manage and Lead Integrated Systems of Care”. In our second blog, we expand on the leadership lessons we are learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how leadership and management are changing to shape the future of integrated care and, ultimately, population health.

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Community Hospitals: Embedding Covid-19 positive impact changes through shared learning

By Miriam Galvin / June 29, 2021
Community Hospitals (CH) made important contributions during the Covid-19 response, demonstrating flexibility, resilience and innovation. CH are local hospitals, often rural, with around 500 throughout the UK. The Community Hospitals Association (CHA) wanted to share this learning and was successful in accessing funding for this project. The project aims to describe, support and promote innovation… Read More

European standard for patient participation in person-centred care

By Miriam Galvin / June 24, 2021

A four-year long consensus-driven process has resulted in the first ever European standard on patient participation in person-centred care. The standard can facilitate the introduction of, work with and research on person-centred care. Axel Wolf, Chair of the European committee for the standard, explains more in this video blog.

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The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Integrated

By Miriam Galvin / April 27, 2021
As I reflect on my tenure as chair of the Chief Officer Group, Health and Social Care Scotland (HSCS), I’m reminded of the prophetic final words in my previous Chair’s Report, ‘2020 will be perhaps the most challenging year in our integrated landscape. Marshaled well, it will capture the best of us and help create… Read More

VIDEO: Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani discusses her recent publication

By Miriam Galvin / April 22, 2021

Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani chats with Orla Snook O’Carroll about her recent publication “Legislating for integrated care in the UK: Lessons from abroad.”

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International Leadership In The Design Of Personalised Integrated Care Pathways For Older Adults

By Miriam Galvin / April 14, 2021
IFIC has led the redesign of a multi-layer care pathway for older adults in Europe in the framework of the PROCare4Life project. Specific to this project, "the purpose of the care pathway planning is to produce a written document that records needs, identifies actions to be taken, and resources that need to be put in place… Read More

Inaugural ERPIC Journal Club

By Miriam Galvin / March 24, 2021

Inaugural ERPIC Journal Club

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iSIMPATHY: Making Medication Personal

By Miriam Galvin / March 16, 2021
The average person aged over 70-years lives with at least three long term conditions and is likely to take multiple medications. Our outlook on life can change as we get older. Older people often express what matters most to them in terms of relationships and autonomy. How might what’s important to them impact on the… Read More

Frailty Matters

By Miriam Galvin / February 25, 2021
IFIC Scotland’s end of year blog mentioned our ‘Frailty Matters’ project, funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. I am pleased to share some more detail about this innovative collaboration between the ALLIANCE, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), IFIC Scotland and the Queens Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS). Frailty… Read More

Reflections in a Time of Crisis: What it Takes to Manage and Lead Integrated Systems of Care

By Miriam Galvin / February 23, 2021
For the past few years, we have been exploring the essence of management and leadership for integrated care, bringing together our respective research and substantive professional experience. We have led workshops, presentations and informal meetings including at the 2019 and 2020 International Conferences on Integrated Care. The interest and enthusiasm of the participants has caused… Read More

Advancing integrated care evaluation in shifting contexts

By Miriam Galvin / January 20, 2021

Despite many studies evaluating the effectiveness of integrated care, evidence remains inconsistent. Increasingly, commentary on the subject of integrated care evaluation is pointing out the mismatch between the ability to capture the impact of integrated care initiatives and programmes, and the selection of the most appropriate methodology to do this.

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