Abstract

An integrative care model is a challenge and the future of social and healthcare systems globally in establishing interdisciplinary cooperation. The integrative care model responds to the needs of patients suffering from various diseases as well as their families. Planning and policy making should involve professionals in both the medical and social care disciplines; additionally, the management and administrators of social and healthcare services, at both the national and community levels, are crucial in integrating health services. This article aims to present and describe the selection methods of functional groupings of municipalities as appropriate locations for implementing care practices for elderly, in this case an integrative social and health services model. The study employed an exploratory mixed methods design. The proposed methodology of the selection of the functional groupings of municipalities has a mixed-methodological character, consisting of quantitative as well as qualitative methods. Our research focused on quantitative data processing using two approaches: the multicriteria evaluation method to create a composite index and the ArcGIS system to express the geographical distribution of the value of the composite index. The qualitative document study was applied to analyses of community-based plans for health and social services. The methodology also includes an evaluation of municipalities, which was not the subject of our paper. Furthermore, the article suggests the need to consider other factors in connection with the methodology of the selection of functional groupings and explains some of its limitations in the discussion.

Highlights

  • Long-term care (LTC) includes the broad array of services provided to disabled persons— the elderly because of chronic illness or disability—at home, in nursing homes, and in assisted-living facilities

  • functional grouping of municipalities (FG), each value of the indicator is transformed into a value that corresponds to the selected methodology of data processing, where individual indicators are expressed in percentages and the logic of their evaluation is defined by the relationship: the higher the percentage, the greater the need for the involvement of the municipality in FG

  • It is possible that the methodology may not capture all the elements that indicate appropriateness for siting social and healthcare services, including the integrative care model in rural and remote communities

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Summary

Introduction

Long-term care (LTC) includes the broad array of services provided to disabled persons— the elderly because of chronic illness or disability—at home, in nursing homes, and in assisted-living facilities. These services are provided to improve personal functioning and quality of life (The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development 2011; Stallard 2017; Freeman et al 2017). The integration of social and healthcare is a complex process that is dependent on a plethora of factors (Struijs et al 2015; World Health Organisation 2015; Wodchis et al.2018).

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