Gill Harvey
1*, Joanne Dollard
2, Amy Marshall
1, Manasi Murthy Mittinty
1,31 Adelaide Nursing School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
2 Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
3 Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Abstract
Integrated care has been recognised as a key initiative to resolve the issues surrounding care for older people
living with multi-morbidity. Multiple strategies and policies have been implemented to increase coordination
of care globally however, evidence of effectiveness remains mixed. The reasons for this are complex and multifactorial,
yet many strategies deal with parts of the problem rather than taking a whole systems view with the older
person clearly at the centre. This approach of fixing parts of the system may be akin to shuffling the deckchairs
on the Titanic, rather than dealing with the fundamental reasons why the ship is sinking. Attempts to make the
ship more watertight need to be firmly centred on the older person, pay close attention to implementation and
embrace approaches that promote collaborative working between all the stakeholders involved.