International Journal of Integrated Care

INTRODUCTION: Integrated community care (ICC) is defined as an interweaving of health-care and social-care interventions deployed in spatial and relational proximity using an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. Consideration of territory scale and time scale are at the center of ICC practices. Its deployment in public health and social care networks (HSCN) can be complex due to their broad mandate, the complexity of their management, and accountability. Therefore, we aimed to describe ICC delivered by public HSCN to determine how, why, for whom, and in what circumstances ICC works and produces outcomes...

PURPOSE: Achieving greater health and social care integration is a policy priority in many countries, but challenges remain. We focused on governance and accountability for integrated care and explored arrangements that shape more integrated delivery models or systems in Italy, the Netherlands and Scotland. We also examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected existing governance arrangements. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A case study approach involving document review and semi-structured interviews with 35 stakeholders in 10 study sites between February 2021 and April 2022...

INTRODUCTION: Social Prescribing has an established recognition regarding the benefits provided to the health-related social needs of adults, but little is known about how the intervention addresses young people's needs. There is optimism regarding the central role of two core mechanisms that allows social prescribing to be effective, such as the empathetic role of Link Workers and the connection with community resources.This paper aims to describe the role played by Link Workers working a Social Prescribing intervention targeting young people...

INTRODUCTION: Population Health Management (PHM) focusses on keeping the whole population as healthy as possible. As such, it could be a promising approach for long-term health improvement in type 2 diabetes. This scoping review aimed to examine the extent to which and how PHM is used in the care for people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched between January 2000 and September 2021 for papers on self-reported PHM initiatives for type 2 diabetes...

BACKGROUND: Quality integrated care, which involves primary care and mental health clinicians working together, can help identify and treat adolescent depression early. We explored systemic barriers to quality integrated care at the provincial level in Ontario, Canada using a learning system approach. METHODS: Two Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), regional networks designed to support integrated care, completed the Practice Integration Profile (PIP) and participated in focus groups...

The multimorbidity approach involves promotional and preventive strategies. The demand for rehabilitation services has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to the urgency of rethinking care delivery. In Chile, there are laws, programs, and guidelines that, from their theoretical basis, include a person-centered care focus. But in real practice, multiple barriers trigger important fragmentation of care. In response, a new strategy has been proposed to answer whether comprehensive rehabilitation care based on multimorbidity positively impacts the health system performance, people's functionality, and quality of life, which will be implemented as a pilot study with a national scale-up focus...

INTRODUCTION: Mental health and/or substance use (MHS) challenges affect approximately 95% of youth in the criminal justice system, with only three in ten justice-involved youth receiving treatment. Caregivers of justice-involved youth have identified fragmented care as a barrier to youth accessing MHS services. One suggested solution to this problem is the implementation of integrated youth services (IYS). However, it is unknown which IYS components caregivers of justice-involved youth prioritize...

BACKGROUND: The evaluation of continuity of care is usually based on the indicators of the frequency of patients' contacts with specific providers. There are some first attempts to use physician survey for the evaluation. OBJECTIVE: Is to get additional information on the continuity of care in Russia by a newly developed physician questionnaire with detailed questions related to the specific areas of providers' interaction in the health system. METHODS: The questionnaire was developed to increase the number of characteristics and indicators for the evaluation of informational, longitudinal and interpersonal continuity...

In this perspective paper we use publicly-available data to show that, despite much positive rhetoric in support of reforms in Scotland to integrate health and social care, these reforms, in their current state, have failed to meet their stated objectives. Rather than regress to the previous system, we propose continued evaluation of even more radical forms of such integration. This analysis, and set of future proposals, are timely given current considerations with respect to a National Care Service in Scotland and recent similar reforms in England and in other countries...

OBJECTIVE: Multimorbidity is a growing challenge in the care for older people with mental illness. To address both physical and mental illnesses, integrated care management is required. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify core components of integrated care models for older adults with depression and physical comorbidity, and map reported outcomes and implementation strategies. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane Library were searched independently by two reviewers for studies concerning integrated care interventions for older adults with depression and physical comorbidity...

INTRODUCTION: Observational data are increasingly seen as a valuable source for integrated care research. Especially since the growing availability of routinely collected data and quasi-experimental methods. The aim of this paper is to describe the potentials and challenges when using observational data for integrated maternity care research, based on our experience from developing and working with the Data-InfrAstructure for ParEnts and childRen (DIAPER). METHODS AND RESULTS: We provide a description of DIAPER, which is a linked data-infrastructure on the individual level based on maternity care claims data, quality and utilization of maternity care and data from municipal registries, covering the life course from preconception to adulthood...

INTRODUCTION: The evaluation of integrated care programmes for high-need high-cost older people is a challenge. We aim to share the early implementation results of the ProPCC programme in the North-Barcelona metropolitan area, in Catalonia, Spain. METHODS: We analysed the intervention with retrospective data from May 2018 to December 2021 by describing the cohort complexity and by showing its 6-months pre-post impact on time spent at home and resources used: primary care visits, emergency department visits, hospital admissions and hospital stay...

The COVID-19 pandemic has mandated a re-imagination of how healthcare is administered and delivered, with a view towards focusing on person-centred care and advancing population health while increasing capacity, access and equity in the healthcare system. These goals can be achieved through healthcare integration. In 2019, the University Health Network (UHN), a consortium of four quaternary care hospitals in Ontario, Canada, established the first stage of a pilot program to increase healthcare integration at the institutional level and vertically with other primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the Ontario healthcare system...

INTRODUCTION: Failings in providing continuity of care following an acute event for a chronic disease contribute to care inequities for First Nations Peoples in Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). METHODS: A rapid narrative review, including primary studies published in English from Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Central, concerning chronic diseases (cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and related complications), was conducted...

INTRODUCTION: Behavioural and emotional disorders are a significant cause of morbidity for young people aged 10-19 years. School-based health care (SBHC) provides an innovative approach to addressing these issues within Australia. DESCRIPTION: We describe an innovative and integrative SBHC model called Ngaramadhi Space (NS) based at a specialised behavioural school called Yudi Gunyi school (YGS) in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. NS was developed in partnership with the Aboriginal community to provide holistic, integrated, multidisciplinary child and family centred care to students experiencing problematic externalising behaviour...

INTRODUCTION: A wide range of factors influence coordination and continuity of care. The aim of this study was to explore how management continuity of cardiovascular-related ambulatory care is influenced by the following network characteristics: presence of a case coordinator, network reciprocity, network composition and team climate. METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study included three written surveys. The primary outcome management continuity of cardiovascular care was measured with the team/cross-boundary scale in the Nijmegen Continuity Questionnaire...

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 50% of persons with orthopedic injuries experience psychosocial distress (e.g., depression, anxiety), which can predict chronic pain and disability. Offering psychosocial services in orthopedic settings can promote patient recovery. This study explores health care professionals' perceptions of and recommendations regarding integrated psychosocial care for orthopedic settings. METHODS: We conducted 18 semi-structured focus groups with 79 orthopedic health care professionals (e...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

INTRODUCTION: Ignited by the persistent health inequalities many cities and neighbourhoods, the 'Healthy and Happy The Hague' network in the Netherlands wanted to gain insight in how prevention and health promotion could become successful in one deprived neighbourhood, Moerwijk. METHODS: The cycle of Look-Think-Act of Participatory Action Research was used in which both citizens and professionals got involved from the start. Besides interviews, field notes were analysed, visualised and discussed in several rounds of focus groups...

INTRODUCTION: The Kids Guided Personalised Service (KidsGPS) is an integrated model of care coordination for children and young people (CYP) living with medical complexity. After successful implementation in an urban setting, the model of care will be rolled-out at scale to four rural regions in New South Wales, Australia to establish RuralKidsGPS. This paper describes the approach and methods for the outcome and implementation evaluation of RuralKidsGPS. DESCRIPTION: The evaluation aims to assess health, economic and implementation outcomes and processes whilst identifying barriers and enablers to inform future rollouts...