The focus of the Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm) goes beyond the most common interpretations placed on integrated care (i.e. integration of health and social care provision). Integrated Community Care (ICC) is moving to the forefront of an international policy and practice agenda. In its most rudimentary form, ICC is recognized as a much-needed and valuable expansion of the more typical notions of integrated care, with explicit recognition of the value, potential and power of communities, citizens and ‘laypeople’. However, this is a rather shallow vision on ICC.
ICC points towards a paradigm shift at the citizen, community and system level. Lived experience, a shared vision on the fate of the community, distributed power and collective learning are its cornerstones.
The overarching aim of the Forum is to trigger the interest of and inspire policy-makers, key stakeholders and practitioners to foster integrated community care. It seeks to achieve this through finding and analysing promising practices in integrated community care and learning from their experiences and impact.
TransForm undertook a mapping exercise of promising practices in the area of ICC that serves as a source of evidence and the basis for developing a series of conferences and site visits. This exercise has been supported by an Advisory Group composed of experts from different backgrounds.
From September 2018 to spring 2021, four transnational conferences – with accompanying site visit programmes – are being organised in Europe and Canada. The conferences will be based around expert lectures, illustrative case studies and theme-based workshops through which delegates will be able to debate and discuss key issues and so make observations and recommendations related to how such issues might best be taken forward in practice. The study visits to ‘promising practices’ of ICC will provide insights into different approaches to ICC that have been put into practice in various settings and the issues and challenges these practices face in organising and sustaining their activities.
To know more about the TransForm conferences click here.
TransForm is a joint initiative of six Foundations, hosted by the Network of European Foundations. Content support is provided by the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC). The logos of the foundations involved in the partnership are listed below in alphabetical order.