Person-centred assessment to integrate care for older people

Abstract

To achieve best outcomes for older people in their health and care, we should organise care around the concerns and priorities of older people themselves. By doing this we can integrate all the assets which can contribute to healthy ageing. These assets include the strengths of the older person, family care, and support from local resources. It is best to have a standardised system for personalised assessment which can be applied to large populations of older people in primary care settings. In countries with well-developed specialist services more specialised or comprehensive assessment can be added. In this paper, we use case studies from the EasyCare project to illustrate how this approach can be implemented in poor, middle income and rich countries.