“Integrated health and social care and technology help deliver better services and efficiently manage available resources”

On 2 November, the auditorium at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona hosted the presentation of the final projects in the master’s degree in Integrated Management of Primary, Social and Hospital Care Services – GESAPH taught at the IL3-UB Continuing Education Institute.  

During the closing speech, Carles Campuzano, Catalan Government Minister of Social Rights, highlighted how “integrated health and social care and technology help deliver better services and efficiently manage available resources”. The minister explained how integrated care and investment in technology are two tools that can respond to one of the country’s major social and national challenges: demographic ageing. The Minister of Social Rights highlighted the key role that the TIC Salut Social Foundation is playing “in supporting the implementation of these tools in the current period of intense work”.  

The Foundation is making progress as a space for technological innovation in the social sector. The Department of Social Rights and the Foundation are currently collaborating on projects related to technological assessment and digital transformation of Social Services. And also on supporting and promoting the Integrated Social and Health Care Agency (AGAISS). 

According to Carles Campuzano, AGAISS is the governance instrument for implementing the integrated care model. But the real protagonists are the municipalities and territories where users, professionals and care and treatment centres are interrelated.  

The eight GESAPH 2022-23 master’s degree projects 

This training programme equips the participants with knowledge and techniques for integrated care and management, jointly training and educating professionals in the field of health, social and community care. The students presented the development and results of their final master’s degree projects to professionals and experts in integrated care. 

Dr Josep Maria Grego, the director of the GESAPH master’s degree, presented the eight final master’s degree projects for 2022-23, which dealt with different areas of integrated care. The projects deal with issues from the prevention and early detection of loneliness in pre-adolescents to integrated care programmes for people diagnosed with chronic diseases, through the emotional wellbeing of informal caregivers.  

The awards were presented by the Minister of Social Rights and Jordi Amblàs, the Integrated Care Strategy manager at the Department of Health. There were two first prizes consisting of a €1,500 grant and a service to support the scalability of the project, also valued at €1,500. The winning projects were Respira cuidador (Take a breath, carer) and TOSTEMP AMASSA (Always United), an integrated care programme for people with chronic diseases and social vulnerability in rural environments.

It has a technological component based on an app for health use and detection of social needs. It offers support to professionals, carers and users to monitor the disease and social situation by detecting warning signs and symptoms.