EURHOMAP: mapping professional home care in Europe

INTRODUCTION: Not only is there no comparable information on home care available from the newest EU member states, but information from the other 15 is old. Furthermore, as European countries have implemented health care reforms over the past decade, updating is needed. DESCRIPTION OF POLICY PRACTICE: The EURHOMAP project (Mapping professional home care in Europe) aims to describe and compare the organisation and provision of home care (health and social) services through the gathering, analysing and disseminating of information on various aspects of home care services in 32 European countries. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: Data collection will be done firstly with vignettes, descriptions of cases of elderly or disabled people in need of care living at home, and secondly with a collection table including data and selected home care items. Both instruments will be handled by experts. Comparison of the two instruments will show the diversity of home care in Europe: different roles of home care in European health care systems, variations in financing and provision, links with other sectors of health care and social services, and type of patient needs and demands to which home care is responding.