Preparations have stepped up a gear as the TransForm team get ready to stage its first conference.
Making the Case for Integrated Community Care will take place in Hamburg, Germany, from September 24 to 26. This week the line-up of international expert speakers has been announced and the final six site visits have been confirmed.
TransForm, The Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care, was set up last year as part of a three-year project and is funded by Network of European Foundations (NEF) and supported by the International Foundation for Integrated Care. TransForm seeks to pull together evidence and analysis of promising practice in integrated community care, as well as learning from their experiences and impact.
The first stage of this work will be presented at the inaugural conference and three further conferences are set to follow. These are: People-centred care: empowering and engaging individuals, carers and families through integrated community care; Engaging local communities through integrated community care and finally Making integrated care a reality.
IFIC’s CEO Dr Nick Goodwin will open the conference setting out The Compelling Case for Integrated Community Care. Key note speakers to follow include Cormac Russell, Managing Director of Nurture Development, Ireland, who will present, Putting Community at the Heart of Integrated Social Care: An Asset-Based Approach, and Jean Macq, Professor at the Research Institute Health & Society, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, who will present From Medicine to Positive Health: how can community integrated care contribute.
During the three-day conference there will also be the opportunity to hear a panel discussion, what does ICC mean in practice, led by Cormac Russell, Jean Macq and Jodeme Goldhar, Executive Lead, Strategy and Innovation, The Change Foundation, Canada. There will be case study presentations by Barbara Steiner, PORT Hohenstein, Germany of Community Health Center Hohenstein, about the Challenges in Development and Implementation of Innovative, Person-centred and Multi-professional Care in Rural Areas; Dr Joseph Duffy, of Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health, Ireland, will talk about Jigsaw – Integrating Youth Mental Health Care. Marion Zwygart, Quartieres Solidaires (Neighborhood Solidarity), Switzerland, will present Neighborhoods in Solidarity: an elderly community process conducted throughout action research in Switzerland; and Dr John Howarth, Millom Alliance, UK, will discuss Citizen Led Healthcare – learning from the Millom experience.
Earlier this year a small team representing the TransForm project were in Hamburg to explore some integrated community care case sites for the conference. They have selected seven sites, four which will host site visits and the other three which will host two workshops.
The final projects are:
- NetzWerk GesundAktiv (NWGA), a cross-sectoral aid and support network supporting older people to live an independent, self-reliant life in their own home for as long as possible. Each of the participants undergoes extensive examinations and structured tests (geriatric and gerontological assessment) to assess their individual needs and the results used to create individual support plans and care.
- Community health centre Poliklinik Veddel supports people in one of Hamburg’s most deprived areas. Just a year ago there was one doctor working in the community, today there are 20 health and care professionals giving support to people in primary heathcare, social and healthcare counselling, psychological counselling and special counselling for refugees and women. They also organise different projects in the neighbourhood.
- Project CORESZON by Peter Möhrle Foundation and the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf help individuals and communities cope with trauma and stress. The approach based on the Community Resiliency Model (CRM®) provides a culture-specific, self-help-based supplement to the standard mental health service provision. Since April 2017 the multi-lingual team of CORESZON has provided the CRM-based training and counselling for refugees in Hamburg who can first use the CRM® for self-care, then to support their family or community.
- Gesundheit für Billstedt-Horn is a patient-orientated and interdisciplinary local health network in the neighbourhoods of Billstedt and Horn, in Hamburg. These neighbourhoods have more social welfare recipients, people with migrant backgrounds and single parents than anywhere else in Hamburg. The project aims to empower patients to take more responsibility for their health, reduce the work-load of GPs, make better use of resources and increase the quality of care. The main interventions include a centrally based health kiosk, innovative IT, encourage patient activation and health literacy, integrated healthcare management to improve care for those chronically ill and with multi-morbidities and improve drug-safety training for physicians.
A workshop called ‘Who cares? – How are children involved?’, has been organised jointly by AG Jump and Wellengang, and another focussing on the PORT concept will review the case study PORT Büsum.
- Wellengang is an outreach project aimed at improving the well-being of children and their families in multi-issue situations, such as psychological instability, school-problems, deficiencies in the upbringing of children, mental illness, unemployment etc. Wellengang promotes contact in the group-cycle (self-help). Services are provided free and the team work with paediatricians, schools, social services, psychiatrists. Hamburg University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) is involved in the research and evaluation of Wellengang groups. The Wellengang Hamburg project is run by ALADIN GmbH, an agency providing support and counselling for children and families in need.
- AG JUMP is a working group, part of Wir Pflegen organisation, set up to help get all agencies working together to support young carers to give them and their families a better life balance. It is starting a pilot project with a school in Hamburg to develop responses to identify and support young carers.
- PORT Büsum, part of a national initiative by the Robert Bosch Stiftung whereby health centres are tailored to regional needs and provide citizens with comprehensive, patient-centred, health care, including prevention and health promotion. The health centre in the small town of Büsum is a home to a multi-professional team of health, social and other professionals where staff use new innovative practices and applications, such as eHealth.