In the Netherlands, client and family participation in care for people with intellectual disabilities has been in vogue for a long time, and increasingly receives attention (KPMG and Vilans 2017). However, the perspective and experiential knowledge of service users and relatives is often still insuBiciently used for the co-creation of care. The professional perspective is often still dominant. In addition, professionals mainly focus on clients and less on relatives, even though relatives often play an important role in the client’s (quality of) life (Wiersma 2017). The project ‘Inclusive Collaboration in Disability Care’[1] (ICDC) focusses on enhancing equal communication between people with intellectual disabilities, their relatives, and professional caregivers, and hence contributes to redressing power imbalances in longterm care. It investigates the question: “How can the triangle of client, relative and professional caregiver together co-create better care and support?”.
Purpose: The increasing number of cancer survivors has heightened demands on hospital-based follow-up care resources. To address this, involving general practitioners (GPs) in oncological follow-up is proposed. This study explores secondary care providers’ views on integrating GPs into follow-up care for curatively treated breast and colorectal cancer survivors. Methods: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with Dutch medical specialists and nurse practitioners. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis by two independent researchers. Results: Fifteen medical specialists and nine nurse practitioners participated. They identified barriers such as re-referral delays, inexperience to perform structured follow-up, and worries about the lack of oncological knowledge among GPs. Benefits included the GPs’ accessibility and their contextual knowledge. For future organization, they emphasized the need for hospital logistics changes, formal GP training, sufficient case-load, proper staffing, remuneration, and time allocation. They suggested that formal GP involvement should initially be implemented for frail older patients and for prevalent cancer types. Conclusions: The interviewed Dutch secondary care providers generally supported formal involvement of primary care in cancer follow-up. A well-organized shared-care model with defined roles and clear coordination, supported by individual patients, was considered essential. This approach requires logistics adaptation, resources, and training for GPs. Implications for cancer survivors: Integrating oncological follow-up into routine primary care through a shared-care model may lead to personalized, effective, and efficient care for survivors because of their long-term relationships with GPs.
The current study analyzed blogs written by four Dutch parents of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, with the aim of deepening the understanding of the parents’ concerns. Thematic analysis was conducted and five main themes were identified: Dealing with uncertainties addressed the impact of unpredictability present in the everyday lives of parents, Love and loss described the complexity of concurrently cherishing the child and grieving various types of loss, Struggling with time, energy and finances detailed imbalances and struggles related to parents’ personal resources, Feeling included in communities and society specified social consequences, and Relating to professional care services reflected on stress and support associated with professional care delivery. The study findings demonstrate how care professionals should acknowledge parents’ vulnerabilities by being aware of their existential distress and empowering parents to exercise control of family thriving.
Dutch society faces major future challenges putting populations’ health and wellbeing at risk. An ageing population, increase of chronic diseases, multimorbidity and loneliness lead to more complex healthcare demands and needs and costs are increasing rapidly. Urban areas like Amsterdam have to meet specific challenges of a growing and super divers population often with a migration background. The bachelor programs and the relating research groups of social work and occupational therapy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences innovate their curricula and practice-oriented research by multidisciplinary and cross-domain approaches. Their Centres of Expertise foster interprofessional research and educational innovation on the topics of healthy ageing, participation, daily occupations, positive health, proximity, community connectedness and urban innovation in a social context. By focusing on senior citizens’ lives and by organizing care in peoples own living environment. Together with their networks, this project aims to develop an innovative health promotion program and contribute to the government missions to promote a healthy and inclusive society. Collaboration with stakeholders in practice based on their urgent needs has priority in the context of increasing responsibilities of local governments and communities. Moreover, the government has recently defined social base as being the combination of citizen initiatives, volunteer organizations , caregivers support, professional organizations and support of vulnerable groups. Kraktie Foundations is a community based ethno-cultural organization in south east Amsterdam that seeks to research and expand their informal services to connect with and build with professional care organizations. Their aim coincides with this project proposal: promoting health and wellbeing of senior citizens by combining intervention, participatory research and educational perspectives from social work, occupational therapy and hidden voluntary social work. With a boundary crossing innovation of participatory health research, education and Kraktie’s work in the community we co-create, change and innovate towards sustainable interventions with impact.
English: This living lab aims to support the creation, development and implementation of next generation concepts for sustainable healthcare logistics, with special attention for last mile solutions. Dutch healthcare providers are on the verge of a transition towards (more) sustainable business models, spurred by e.g., increasing healthcare costs, ongoing budget cuts, tight labor market conditions and increasing ecological awareness. Consequently, healthcare providers need to improve and innovate their business model and underlying logistics concept(s). Simultaneously, many cities are struggling with congestion in traffic, air quality and liveability in general. This calls for Last Mile Logistics (LML) concepts that can address challenges like effective and efficient resource planning, scheduling and utilization and, particularly, sustainability goals. LML can reduce environmental and social impact by decreasing emissions, congestion and pollution through effectively consolidating in-flows of goods and providing innovative solutions for care, wellbeing and related services. The research and initiatives in the living lab will address the following challenges: reducing the ecological footprint, reducing (healthcare-related) costs, improving service quality, decreasing loneliness of frail citizens and improving the livability of urban areas (reducing congestion and emissions). Given the scarcity and fragmentation of knowledge on healthcare logistics in organizations the living lab will also act as a learning community for (future) healthcare- and logistics professionals, thereby supporting the development of human capital. By working closely with related stakeholders and using a transdisciplinary research approach it is ensured that the developed knowledge and solutions deliver a contribution to societal challenges and have sound business potential.
English: This living lab aims to support the creation, development and implementation of next generation concepts for sustainable healthcare logistics, with special attention for last mile solutions. Dutch healthcare providers are on the verge of a transition towards (more) sustainable business models, spurred by e.g., increasing healthcare costs, ongoing budget cuts, tight labor market conditions and increasing ecological awareness. Consequently, healthcare providers need to improve and innovate their business model and underlying logistics concept(s). Simultaneously, many cities are struggling with congestion in traffic, air quality and liveability in general. This calls for Last Mile Logistics (LML) concepts that can address challenges like effective and efficient resource planning, scheduling and utilization and, particularly, sustainability goals. LML can reduce environmental and social impact by decreasing emissions, congestion and pollution through effectively consolidating in-flows of goods and providing innovative solutions for care, wellbeing and related services. The research and initiatives in the living lab will address the following challenges: reducing the ecological footprint, reducing (healthcare-related) costs, improving service quality, decreasing loneliness of frail citizens and improving the livability of urban areas (reducing congestion and emissions). Given the scarcity and fragmentation of knowledge on healthcare logistics in organizations the living lab will also act as a learning community for (future) healthcare- and logistics professionals, thereby supporting the development of human capital. By working closely with related stakeholders and using a transdisciplinary research approach it is ensured that the developed knowledge and solutions deliver a contribution to societal challenges and have sound business potential.
