The InCARE project will contribute to the design of a coherent and coordinated approach to the development of national long-term care policy and care services at local and regional level, by establishing socially innovative and participatory decision-making processes.
InCARE addresses four key aspects for system sustainability and innovation capacity:
- Multi-stakeholder cooperation;
- Community engagement;
- Evidence based decision-making;
- Capacity building through mutual learning.
The main proposition is that social innovation in long-term care should reflect the aspirations and needs of older people with functional or cognitive impairment and their caregivers. It also emphasizes the role of local communities and service providers to shape care service delivery in innovative ways, facilitated by national policy-level support for adapting, adopting and enhancing these initiatives.
Vilans Researchers Henk Nies, Kelsey Benning, Lian Stouthard and Nick Zonneveld are contributing to this project which includes two main types of activities built around the structure of a Theory of Change process:
- Formative research tasks in support of policy processes (creation of knowledge base; policy toolkit; participatory decision-making)
- The design, implementation and evaluation of socially innovative long-term care service pilots in 3 European countries: Austria, North Macedonia and Spain.
InCARE is a transnational research action project co-funded by European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” 2014-2020.
The project works with care users, care provider organisations and policy-makers in Spain, Austria and North Macedonia to design, implement and scale-up innovative care services, with the ultimate goal of improving the well-being of older people and their families and increase their access to adequate and affordable care.
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