Integrating Health and Social Care Services for Older Persons

'Providing Integrated Health and Social Care for Older Persons (PROCARE)' is a project in the EU Fifth Framework Programme (Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, Area "The Ageing Population and Disabilities") which aims to help in defining the new concept of an integrated health and social care for older persons in need of care by comparing and evaluating different modes of care delivery.

Following the publication of a first book published in 2004, this volume draws on the achievements of the second project phase (2003-2004) that consisted of empirical fieldwork and a cross-national analysis of model ways of working in the nine participating EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK).

The book underpins the more general national and European considerations gathered in the project with empirical findings analyzed from a transnational perspective. Its chapters have been written by 'internationally mixed' teams and will thus contribute to the development of a truly European perspective, providing:

• a unique general overview of European approaches to integrated social and health care services and policies that are to be developed to face the growing need for care in ageing societies;
• indicators for successful approaches and models of good practice to overcome the 'social-health-divide';
• better understanding of the meaning of integrated services and the coordination of social and health systems in the different countries;
• facts and figures about coordination at the interface between health and social care for older persons;
• problems and solutions ('lessons to learn') concerning regulation and coordination.

The contribution of the Verwey-Jonker Institute is in the following three chapters:

The access to integrated care provision, Klaas Gorter, Francesca Ceruzzi and Laura Alipranti.
The outcomes and benefits of integrated care - in search for the point of view of service users and carers, Riitta Haverinen and Nasrin Tabibian.
Conclusions and recommendations, Jenny Billings, Kai Leichsenring and Nasrin Tabibian