BUILD advances co-created solutions for person-centred integrated care across Europe
BUILD is now entering a new phase of its work, moving from research and evidence gathering towards the development of solutions that can help improve long-term care to become more person-centred and integrated across Europe. At Month 27, the project is focusing on turning evidence into action by combining stakeholder engagement, policy analysis and co-creation processes to support care systems to the realities of older adults with complex care needs and those who support them, and the established care systems including formal caregivers.
One part of this phase is the organisation of scenario workshops, whose purpose is to create opportunities for care receivers (older adults) and informal caregivers to provide their perspectives on how technology can be used to support PC-IC solutions. The scenarios are fictive stories but are grounded in reality and existing technologies. The participants provide their feedback on the scenarios, highlighting their likes and dislikes which make them knowledgeable about their own preferences which they then use to create a shared vision for how they would like technology to be used in PC-IC onwards. The scenarios are not future-orienteted but rather a thought-experiment where participants can make the changes they would like to see now to create the care systems as they desire.
At the same time, BUILD has advanced in the development of promising policy and governance practices and to translate these insights into evidence-based recommendations for more person-centred, integrated LTC systems. These recommendations will be further refined in the upcoming months through co-design workshops with further stakeholder engagement in five countries, as well as through consultations with the Association Board members.
All of this work will contribute to a co-design framework and toolbox intended to support policymakers and stakeholders especially on a meso-level in using participatory co-design and community engagement methodologies to co-create PC-I-LTC solutions. Moreover, by considering the social return on investment (SROI) approach this will work as a baseline structure for participatory processes with relevant stakeholders. These resources will bring together the project’s research findings, policy learning and stakeholder input into practical guidance and tools that can support improvements of existing care systems beyond the lifetime of the project. Once finalised, they will be made publicly available.
As BUILD progresses towards its final stage, the consortium is working on different data source regarding PC-I-LTC aspects. One main attempt for the first half of 2026 will be to transfer different strands of results within a build baseline strategy to conceptionalise the aimed BUILD framework. The consortium will meet in Vienna in June 2026 to sum up all the work on PC-I-LT in order to proceed work on a common BUILD framework architecture, and is also preparing the final conference, which will take place at the beginning of 2027. This final event will be an important opportunity to present the project’s results, share lessons learned and discuss how the framework, toolbox and policy recommendations can support the future of integrated long-term care in Europe. The conference is expected to bring together policymakers, researchers, care professionals and wider stakeholders from across the European long-term care landscape.
For updates and ways to get involved, visit the BUILD website at https://build-project.eu/.
