Health and Social Care Policy and the Interprofessional ... - CAIPE

education and health care providers. They urge the WHO European Member
States, not only to accept the full recommendations in the Report but also to
adopt policies and strategies that underpin models of education and practice
that delivers the best health outcomes for elderly people.
The group calculated that there are more than five million nurses and
collectively the other health professions (medical doctors, allied health
professions, psychologists and pharmacists) comprise a further 2.5million
workforce.
In addition to the health and social care professions involved in caring for
elderly people, the group identifies other key stakeholders who they
recommend have a vested interest in becoming partners in care. These
include legal advisors, elected government officers, insurance specialists.
Crucially the experts focus on the actual and potential contribution the various
professions can make to the care of older people and comment: ‘This
contribution can be maximised when such professionals work in teams. There
is evidence, however, that when they do exist, interprofessional teams often
do not function efficiently’ (p9). They conclude this section of the Report with
the conclusion that ‘an interprofessional approach would make a significant
contribution to the well-being of older persons’ (p10).
An interprofessional team implementing community based health care
services for elderly people should result in the following positive outcomes:
• organised quality home-care
• short hospitalisation in case of acute health/social crisis
• organised day care
• collaboration with other older age care services. (p13)
This model of health and social care delivery is a process that, the group
believes, ‘stimulates partnership between members of the interprofessional
health care team with the older person and informal carers including families’.
They continue ‘this interprofessional team concept is essential. The health
team members should respect and acknowledge the contribution of each
other and work towards a common goal’ (p13). A quality team however
requires a quality leader, regular meetings attended by all members, joint
assessment, a regular review of patient records which should include ‘shared
care plans’; joint decisions following consultation with the patient (or their
carers) and task delegation to individual team members (p14) with the
outcome being that ‘care must be structured, organised and systematically
provided to each older person in a variety of ways with care [that] is
interprofessional and multidisciplinary and will require inter-sectoral
networking (P16).
So what can be concluded from this overview of EU policy and what are the
implications for the UK? Attention has already been drawn to the numerous
challenges ahead for the people of Europe, the most important being that
there be an urgent need to demonstrate a real commitment to implementing
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