Portfolio: Evidence-based Programs for a Person-centered, Integrated Care for Older People at the Primary Health-care Level

Abstract

A great challenge for public policies is to transform the current demographic transition into opportunity. Longer lives call for new paradigms and concepts in the field of healthcare. This publication, Portfolio: Evidence-based programs for a person-centered, integrated care for older people at the primary health-care level, presents several interventions/programs that are evidence-based and enable healthy aging. To improve older person’s health is crucial to access older adult's needs as well as provide timely identification and action on losses in their physical and mental capacities, that is the intrinsic capacity. The selected programs presented in this document have the objective to improve or maintain older adults’ intrinsic capacity at the community level, focusing on one or more of its main domains. The portfolio focuses mainly on locomotor, psychological and cognitive capacity, as well as self-care and caregiver support. Through the identification of declines in the intrinsic capacity it is possible to create a personal care plan, which will help to prevent or ameliorate declines, support disease management, as well as promote one's active participation in their own care, as supported by the WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE). With the ICOPE model, older adults not only have knowledge of what to do to improve their own health, but they also feel empowered to achieve specific goals. The portfolio programs have been proven to deliver positive outcomes in improving older adults’ capacities, as well as on their adherence to self-care; therefore, it should become part of any primary care toolkit designed to promote and improve healthy aging in the community, accompanying the ICOPE model. Older adults require an integrated approach and a continuum of care with adequate support and transitions from one level to another, depending on their specific needs. Strengthening primary care is one strategy to prepare and align health systems to an aging society.