Raymond Morel 3831 days ago
European policies such as the Social Investment Package for Cohesion and Growth (SIP), the Employment Package for a Job-rich Recovery and the Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIPAHA), are driving the policy agenda for the coming years in the field of long-term care. Their strategy is focused on:
These policies highlight the importance of information and communication technology (ICT)-based care services in achieving these objectives. These services range from assistive to robot technologies, and include telecare, social networking, virtual reality and other online services. Research has demonstrated their value in helping elderly people to be more independent and cope with their physical and mental conditions. ICT-based care services also help carers to deal with stress and to carry out their care tasks better. They can also reduce the use of more expensive care services, avoiding the need for hospital admissions and shortening the length of stays in institutions.
However, ICT-based services for long-term care are only being used on a small scale in Europe. Little scientific evidence of their effectiveness and efficiency is available. In addition, there are technological barriers for end-users, inefficient business models, and difficulties in integrating these services into the care system. These challenges have been identified in previous IPTS research.
IPTS is therefore leading a programme of research to map and develop more systematic and scientific evidence on ICT-based services for independent living and elderly care at home. This programme aims to help European policy makers make decisions on how to design, implement and transfer successful strategies for long-term care, based on technological solutions.
Projects |
Events |
Publications |
Dissemination | Policy Impact | Contact |
ICT-AGE: Long-term Care Strategies for Independent Living of Elderly People (05.2013 – 09.2014)
This project is funded by DG EMPL to support recommendations to the Member States to develop long-term care strategies promoting the use of technology-based solutions to enable older adults to continue living at home.
This research will help the European Commission suggest to the Member States policies that respond to the growing needs of the elderly, ensure access to long-term care and the quality of care and maintain financial sustainability as regards care delivery. The research is one of the actions of the Social Investment Package for Cohesion and Growth (SIP).
More information on the project website
CARICT-PUBL: Publishing and maintaining directory of ICT-enabled services to support carers (09.2012 – 02.2014)
This project publishes an online directory of ICT-enabled services for informal carers to ensure the dissemination of existing good practices and to raise awareness about them among end- users (i.e. carers and older people) and stakeholders.
The project will make available online 93 case studies of ICT-based initiatives for informal carers of older people (63 of them are from the IPTS CARICT project). The project is being coordinated and funded by JRC-IPTS and carried out by the Italian National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing (supported by Eurocarers and Ilikecake Limited).
The website with the case studies will be available at the end of the project.
CARICT: Study on “ICT-based solutions for caregivers: assessing their impact on the sustainability of long-term care in an ageing Europe” (12.2010-12.2011)