Who is the target audience of integrated care concepts for “the older Person?” Stereotypes of the older population for integrated care - A comparison between Germany and Switzerland

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Purpose

In recent years the development of mission statements has increased in popularity in health care management. In the field of integrated care for older people they can be found in the documentation of local or national authorities, and geriatric or gerontological associations. Characteristically, these statements explicitly present a vision of ideal care, e.g. quality standards. Implicitly they often transport specific stereotypes about the typical “older person” whose needs are to be addressed by care efforts. This paper focuses on the spectrum of published conceptualizations of “the older person” as found in various mission statements from Germany and Switzerland

Theory

The analysis is based on discourse theory which proposes that published concepts of “the older person” represent more or less influential normative devices that are produced, actualised, performed and transformed in social practices.

Methods

With methods of qualitative content analysis the paper compares data (e.g. published mission statements) from our current project “Promoting Innovation in Integrated Forms of Health Care: A Comparison of Germany and Switzerland”.

Results and conclusions

Positive stereotypes of “the active, health promoting older person” and concepts such as “successful ageing” can be found. Mission statements differentiate between subgroups of healthy vs. chronically ill elders. Differences in socioeconomic status, gender etc. appear less often. Possible consequences on integrated care concepts will be discussed.