SUSTAIN

Sustainable tailored integrated care for older people in Europe

SUSTAIN is a cross-European project with thirteen partners from nine countries. SUSTAIN will work with fourteen initiatives in seven participating countries. These initiatives aim to achieve integrated care for older people living at home and SUSTAIN will support them in further improving this care. 

Project aims

• to improve established integrated care initiatives for older people living at home with multiple health and social care needs, ensuring they are patient-centred, prevention oriented, efficient, resilient to crises, safe and sustainable
• to ensure that improvements to the integrated care initiatives are applicable and adaptable to other health systems and regions in Europe

Project coordination 

RIVM coordinates the SUSTAIN project together with VU University Medical Center Amsterdam.

 

From left to right: 

• Professor Giel Nijpels, project coordinator (VUmc)
• Professor Caroline Baan, project coordinator (RIVM)
• Simone de Bruin, project manager (RIVM)

The SUSTAIN project is funded under Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020).

Project structure

The SUSTAIN project will last 48 months and is divided into three interrelated phases covering eight interrelated work packages (WPs).

RIVM’s contribution

The RIVM department involved in the SUSTAIN project is the Department for Quality of Care and Health Economics, which is part of the Centre for Nutrition, Prevention, and Health Services. This department has considerable expertise in the area of health services research, including care for the elderly, integrated care, and population health management. There is also expertise in applying a mixed methods approach. As such, RIVM, in addition to the overall coordination of the project, also coordinates two work packages; WP4 and WP5. As RIVM is  experienced in linking science, policy, and practice and in translating empirical findings to policy recommendations, RIVM will also contribute to the development of a roadmap.

The roadmap, which is one of the main outcomes of the project , will be a set of instructions, guidelines and proposed actions that will provide policy-makers and decision-makers a step-by-step guide to support designing, establishing and maintaining systems of integrated care. The SUSTAIN project is an excellent opportunity to further expand RIVM’s knowledge and network in the area of integrated care.