INTERLINKS · Health systems and long-term care for older people in Europe – Modelling the INTERfaces and LINKS between prevention, rehabilitation, quality of services and informal care

The objective of this 3-year project is to construct and validate a general model to describe and analyse long-term care (LTC) systems for older people from a European perspective. The particular aspects of the different emerging national models that currently address long-term care needs in Europe will be used to show how the links to health care services, the quality of LTC services, the incentives for prevention and rehabilitation, and the support for informal carers can be governed and financed to enhance structures, processes and outcomes of LTC systems. Based on the assumption that LTC systems in Europe have only started to develop at the boundaries of health and social care, the project will focus on the elaboration of concepts, indicators and models for policies and practice at the interfaces and links between health systems and LTC. Good practice determinants will be identified and validated across countries. A European ‘state of the art’ model for describing and analysing long-term care provision will thus be constructed as an analytical toolbox that takes into account pathways of reform policies at any stage of a national LTC system’s development. The project outcome will guide policy analysis and design, permit comparison and will substantially broaden the scientific base that supports the Member States to better organise their health and LTC systems. It will also integrate the professional and the non-professional domain with inputs from a wide range of stakeholders by means of National Expert Panels and European-level Sounding Board Conferences. The project will be carried out by a consortium of 17 partners from universities, national and international research institutes with international and interdisciplinary expertise, also in cross-national research. The consortium represents 14 Member States covering different welfare regimes and geographical domains to allow for the regional and developmental, path-dependent differences to be addressed.