Mapping promising social services and policy measures to support the independent living of older people

A compendium of good practices on community-based services for older people

IL_OlderPeople

CONTACT

Magdi Birtha

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR

Magdi Birtha

PROJECT TEAM AT THE EUROPEAN CENTRE

Veronica Sandu, Rahel Kahlert

BACKGROUND

Following the impact of deinstitutionalisation efforts in the disability, or childcare sector, there has been already some progress in long-term care to move from institutional-type of solutions towards integrated models, embedded in the community. However, unlike in other sectors, there is not enough knowledge, nor evidence when it comes to ensuring independent living of older people and where such good practices exist. Additionally, there is limited understanding on what constitutes a good practice (criteria, dimensions etc.) and how to ensure transferability. Considering the increasing interest of public authorities, both within the European Union and beyond (e.g. in Eastern Partnership countries) towards sustainable, community-based policy solutions and measures, this project aims to contribute narrowing this gap and explore existing non-residential service provision available to older people in 6 European countries.

AIMS

The aim of this research is threefold:

To map existing non-residential community-based social services that support the independent living of older people in 6 European countries (AT, SE, ES, SI, PL, CH);
To develop an adequate tool for the assessment and evaluation of what is a good/promising practice in this area;
To present a compendium of good practices (case studies) of community-based care and support services for older people (considering vulnerability dimensions, such as gender, migrant background, etc.).

METHODS

Literature review;
Desk research;
Review of current approaches to definitions of a good/promising practice. Review of existing tools/templates/toolkits;
Development of a conceptual framework to collect information on good/promising practices;
Collection of existing non-residential community-based social services for older people (e.g. in-home care, mobile services, personal assistance, senior clubs etc.) in EU countries, Switzerland, as well as Accession and Eastern Partnership countries;
Scoping review with evaluative components.

The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research supports the Sustainable Development Goals