TransForm has organised international conferences in Europe and Canada since 2018. The conferences included expert lectures, illustrative case studies and theme-based workshops. The study visits to ‘promising practices’ of ICC provide insights into different approaches to ICC that have been put into practice in various settings.
The annual conference 2022 of the European Forum for Primary Care in Ghent that took place on 26 and 27 of September was fully dedicated to “Integrated Community Care: a new opportunity for primary care”. TransForm contributed with Valeria Capellato as keynote speaker and a specific workshop on “Walking the talk of ICC”. The TransForm learning coalition calls on all changemakers, stakeholders and policymakers, national and international networks to work together to find inclusive and sustainable solutions that can move us towards ICC for all. We believe in the power of experimentation, in working continuously to build our evidence base and in ongoing enlargement of our learning coalition.
Building on the outcomes of the Vancouver Conference, the TransForm partnership decided to consolidate the insights on ICC so far in a 2-days expert workshop in Brussels. To make ICC really self-evident, to make it the new standard of care, we needed to make ICC's overarching ambition tangible, communicable and explainable. Reflecting on the purpose and ambition of ICC was about designing the narrative for evolving from the now (‘as is’) towards the aspirational future (state) (‘to be’). From the fuzziness of ICC with which the journey began in Hamburg, to "ICC 4all" as a powerful, inspiring and widely endorsed statement or ‘rallying cry’.
The third conference “Building stronger communities through integrated community care” focused on how to engage communities as pro-active co-producers of their health and how care systems can support an assets-based approach to community development. Specifically, the conference examined how to enable the participation and engagement of communities in decision-making, including an examination of responding to different cultural contexts and the building of social capital.
The conference “Towards people-driven care: engaging and empowering individuals, carers and families through integrated community care” focused on examining the essential elements related to engaging and empowering people in the management of their own health and welfare in the context of where they live. This includes a focus on aspects that help people understand their talents and needs (e.g. health and care literacy, self-care, and access to health records).
The first conference “Making the case for Integrated Community Care”, grounded in both evidence and practical experience, made the compelling case for investment in integrated community care as a policy priority to support effective, high-quality and sustainable care. The conference took place in Hamburg, Germany, on 24-25-26 September 2018.