Dates: 1 November 2020 - 31 October 2023
Funder: European Commission
Project description
Principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states that everyone has the right to affordable long-term services of good quality, in particular home-care and community-based services. Long-term care (LTC) is understood as a range of services and assistance for people who, as a result of mental and/or physical needs and/or disability over an extended period of time, depend on help with daily living activities and/or are in need of some permanent nursing care.
Ensuring all those who need it have access to high quality, affordable long-term care, in particular home-care and community-based services, is a major challenge throughout Europe and at the global level. Policy debates are ongoing on how to shape long-term care systems in the future.
Aims
The InCARE project aims to promote participatory, innovative and integrated approaches to LTC policy and service development. InCARE emphasises four key aspects for system sustainability and innovation capacity:
- Multi-stakeholder cooperation
- Community engagement
- Evidence based decision-making
- Capacity building through mutual learning.
Methods
InCARE includes two main types of activities, built around the structure of a Theory of Change process:
- Formative research tasks in support of policy processes (creation of knowledge base; policy toolkit; participatory decision-making)
- The design, implementation and evaluation of socially innovative long-term care service pilots in 3 European countries: Austria, North Macedonia and Spain.
InCARE will provide proof of concept for a road-map to inclusive LTC system development, promote multi-stakeholder national and international partnerships and support LTC policy processes and reforms.
Survey on long-term care
The InCARE project has launched an online survey on attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care. The aim of the survey is to understand how people view care for older people with support needs and how they assess long-term care systems.
Findings from this study will be used to raise awareness of the challenges faced by older people with care needs and their families, to advocate for policies that can support them, and to help design better support systems for older people, their families and communities.
Please complete the survey here.
Further project information
Principal Investigator: Adelina Comas-Herrera
CPEC Research team: Martin Knapp
Collaborators: The InCARE project is led by the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Austria and involves collaborations across National public authorities and social partners that will implement the action in Austria, North Macedonia and Spain, and International technical-support partners with extensive experience in LTC service design, research, policy analysis, and advocacy.
Keywords: long-term care, older people, carers, outcomes