Methodological development of the interactive INTERLINKS Framework for Long Term Care
By: Jenny Ruth Billings and Kai Leichsenring
Abstract
There is increasing international research into health and social care services for older people in need of long-term care (LTC), but problems remain with respect to acquiring robust comparative information to enable judgements to be made regarding the most beneficial and cost-effective approaches. The project ‘INTERLINKS’ (‘Health systems and LTC for older people in Europe’) funded by the EU 7th Framework programme was developed to address the challenges associated with the accumulation and comparison of evidence in LTC across Europe. It developed a concept and method to describe and analyse LTC and its links with the health and social care system through the accumulation of policy and practice examples on an interactive web-based framework for LTC. This paper provides a critical overview of the theoretical and methodological approaches used to develop and implement the INTERLINKS Framework for LTC, with the aim of providing some guidance to researchers in this area. INTERLINKS has made a significant contribution to knowledge but robust evidence and comparability across European countries remain problematic due to the current and growing complexity and diversity of integrated LTC implementation.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.1173 | Journal eISSN: 1568-4156
Language: English
Submitted on: May 28, 2013
Accepted on: May 27, 2014
Published on: Jun 23, 2014
Published by: Igitur publishing
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year
Keywords:
© 2014 Jenny Ruth Billings, Kai Leichsenring, published by Igitur publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.