Comparing local policy practices to implement ICT-based home care services for aging-in-place in Finland, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

Background The current aging of the population across Europe is creating multiple challenges to the European states as well as to the European authorities. They have to design and implement sustainable policies for aging-in-place (for home care services for the older adults) to improve their wellbei...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Gerontechnology Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 108 - 122
Autores principales: Atarodi, Siavash, Berardi, Anna Maria, Toniolo, Anne-Marie
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: International Society for Gerontechnology 2019
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Background The current aging of the population across Europe is creating multiple challenges to the European states as well as to the European authorities. They have to design and implement sustainable policies for aging-in-place (for home care services for the older adults) to improve their wellbeing and inclusion in the information society. So far, several European initiatives have been runned to bring answers and solutions. Research aim The aim of this paper is to understand whether and how several local authorities in the European Union build regulations and strategies for the ICT-based home care services intended to the older adults and where they stand regarding the literature's recommendations. Method We focus on the results of the SILHOUETTE project, that was part of CREATOR, an INTERREG-IV C mini-programme. We particularly focus on the public policy practices for the development of the ICT-based solutions for aging-in-place (home care services for the older adults) that the project identified. This paper is an analytical and comparative synthesis of these data in relation to the scientific literature. Public policy practices have been compared across territories of seven European countries. Results We found that the seven regions are at different levels of maturity of public policy practices and that the SILHOUETTE project succeeded to enlighten different ways to boost the implementation of ICT-based solutions. Discussion From this comparison we built a table showing the integrated stages of local strategies' development. Comparison with the literature showed a greater development of Nordic countries, with the Finnish region being the only one whose guidelines included a great number of recommendations. Moreover, in this sector, the East/West gap is less present than in the global long-term care services sector and studies from other regions of the world can be useful for European stakeholders.