Abstract
Long-term care for older adults is in transition. Organizations offering long-term care for older adults are expected to provide person-centered care (PCC) in a complex context, with older adults aging in place and participating in society for as long as possible, staff shortages and the slow adoption of technological solutions. To address these challenges, these organizations increasingly use scientific knowledge to evaluate and innovate long-term care. This paper describes how co-creation, in the sense of close, intensive, and equivalent collaboration between science, care practice, and education, is a key factor in the success of improving long-term care for older adults. Such co-creation is central in the Academic Collaborative Center (ACC) Older Adults of Tilburg University. In this ACC, Tilburg University has joined forces with ten organizations that provide care for older adults and CZ zorgkantoor to create both scientific knowledge and societal impact in order to improve the quality of person-centered care for older adults. In the Netherlands, a “zorgkantoor” arranges long-term (residential) care on behalf of the national government. A zorgkantoor makes agreements on cost and quality with care providers and helps people that are in need of care to decide what the best possible option in their situation is. The CZ zorgkantoor arranges the long-term (residential) care in the south and southwest of the Netherlands. This paper describes how we create scientific knowledge to contribute to the knowledge base of PCC for older adults by conducting social scientific research in which the perspectives of older adults are central. Subsequently, we show how we create societal impact by facilitating and stimulating the use of our scientific knowledge in daily care practice. In the closing section, our ambitions for the future are discussed.
Highlights
Due to demographic changes and economic constraints, healthcare in general as well as long-term care for older adults are in transition
Intensive and equivalent collaboration between science, care practice and education in the development of innovative, evidence-based knowledge— called co-creation—is key in the success of improving long-term person-centered care (PCC) for older adults by using scientific knowledge [19,20,21,22]. Such co-creation is central in the Academic Collaborative Center (ACC) Older Adults of Tilburg
Research projects in the ACC Older Adults—of which the majority are PhD studies—all relate to PCC and revolve around the following four themes: 1. autonomy; 2. technology; 3. social needs and social networks; 4. quality improvement
Summary
Due to demographic changes and economic constraints, healthcare in general as well as long-term care for older adults are in transition. Intensive and equivalent collaboration between science, care practice and education in the development of innovative, evidence-based knowledge— called co-creation—is key in the success of improving long-term PCC for older adults by using scientific knowledge [19,20,21,22]. Such co-creation is central in the Academic Collaborative Center (ACC) Older Adults of Tilburg. The ACC Older Adults is a long-term structural partnership of ten organizations that care for older adults (Azora, BrabantZorg, De Riethorst Stromenland, De Wever, Groenhuysen, Schakelring, Surplus, SVRZ, Volckaert and Zorggroep West- en Midden-Brabant (Thebe)), CZ Zorgkantoor and Tilburg University. All six ACCs receive structural funds from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to strengthen the knowledge infrastructure
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
