WHO-ICOPE를 통해 살펴본 건강 노화를 위한 지역사회 노인통합케어 방안

Abstract

As people are getting older, the needs for their health are more likely to become chronic and complex. However, existing health systems are not suitable to deal with these needs. The WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) includes guidelines on community-level interventions to manage declines in intrinsic capacity with 13 evidence-based recommendations for health. It offers an approach that helps health necessity and social care providers to comprehend, design, and enact a person-centered and coordinated model of care. This study confirms that it provides us with the following implications by analyzing the ICOPE program. First, this study confirms through empirical analysis 13 recommendations of ICOPE proposed by systematic literature reviews that are organically linked, enabling evidence-based integrated management. Second, this study demonstrates that ICOPE provides the necessary elements for integrated care among older adults within the community through an evidence-based approach, including guidelines, implementation frameworks, and handbooks. Furthermore, this study confirms that ICOPE proposed micro and macro elements based on individual evaluation and organization of mediation services and systems. It also means that ICOPE emphasizes the importance of national governance for the organization and services implementation other than service design and the evaluation of individual units. Third, this study shows that ICOPE refers to a robust primary care-based system as an essential factor for integrated management of older adults. It also reveals that ICOPE emphasizes efforts to strengthen primary care policies to receive integrated services without weakening the intrinsic function of older people within the community. In conclusion, as suggested in ICOPE based on primary care enhancement policies for elderly integrated care, this study suggests making efforts to provide a link between medical care and long-term care services, and another between medical and welfare services organically. This study presents the need for continuous research, policy development, and monitoring, focusing on 13 recommendations and implementation strategies proposed by ICOPE.