Urban Health Centres Europe

In the UHCE project,  a tool box will summarize practical  experiences with regard to personalized integrated care pathways,  what advice would you give to enable  wide spread implementation of Urban Health Centres 2.0 in European cities.

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Across Europe, we are facing a great challenge to develop the best possible health care for our elderly. It takes a holistic approach of the efforts that will be needed, ie integrating health care with social care. The result of the UHCE 2.0 project should be designed so that it is possible to transfer to the local conditions in each country on the basis of the organization and culture that prevails. The human needs are universal, though individual. Therefore, the program has to be general and adaptable to each culture and community.

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How would you suggest to build intervention programmes to reduce rate of falls or risk of falling?

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Intervention programs should be anchored within the healthcare and social organizations at regional and local level - as well as voluntary activities, such as the senior citizens' associations. The latter is valuable to spread the knowledge about.

In order to inform the elderly in the most personalized way, the intervention program can be based on the outcome of a risk assessment, preferably in the home environment and with a single instrument that clearly indicates each individual's needs. Nutrition aspects and pharmaceutical reviews may be undertaken. The combination of home visits and written information in a brochure about what can cause and prevent falls in the home can be valuable, as well as the importance of exercising balance and strength training to improve balance. Prescription of pants with hip protectors is another example. Even in use of rollators the importance of exercising has to be highlighted. As too many lose their balance when using a rollator a special exercise program should be prescribed together with the rollator.