Integrated Community Care 4All: Effectiveness Principles for Transforming Seniors Care

In 2020, the Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm) published “Integrated Community Care 4All: New Principles for Care”. Therein, TransForm articulated a vision for Integrated Community Care (ICC), to engage and empower people in local communities to move beyond health and social care ‘delivery’ in favour of genuine ‘co-development’ with the individuals and communities that are traditionally seen as care recipients. TransForm’s vision of ICC is focussed on supporting people’s priorities and life goals and improving both health and social cohesion. Importantly, it underscores the importance of valuing and fostering the capacities of all to become change agents, co-producing health and wellbeing. In this presentation, two TransForm collaborators (a philanthropic funder and a health systems researcher) will examine the potential of TransForm’s approach to ICC to serve as a tool to re-shape community care by, with, and for seniors in Canada. First, we will review TransForm’s seven effectiveness principles for ICC, which focus on co-developing funding and governance structures for health and well being, enabling citizen participation, building resilient communities, and evaluating outcomes to inform and adapt service delivery. We will then consider how TransForm’s effectiveness principles for ICC can guide the development, delivery, and accountability of seniors community care initiatives, and the policy and practice shifts such an approach would require. Finally, we will invite reflections and dialogue on the relevance and applicability of TransForm’s ICC effectiveness principles, and ways they might be taken up to empower and engage seniors, informal care providers, service providers, and system partners to create conditions in communities where seniors can thrive.