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The purpose of this paper is to develop a case definition of integrated health and social services initiatives that serve older adults, and will provide characteristics to aid in the identification of such initiatives. The case definition is intended to ease the identification of integrated health and social care initiatives.

A limited search was undertaken of both scientific and gray literature that documented and/or examined integrated health and social services initiatives. In addition, literature on well-documented and generally accepted integrated healthcare and social services models that reflect collaborations from healthcare and social services organizations that support older adults was also used to develop the case definition.

The case definition is as follows: healthcare organizations from across the continuum of care working together with social services organizations, so that services are complementary and coordinated in a seamless and unified system, with care continuity for the patient/client in order to achieve desired health outcomes within a holistic perspective; the initiatives comprise at least one healthcare organization and one social care organization; and these initiatives possess 18 characteristics, grouped under 9 themes: patient care approach; program goals; measurement; service and care quality; accountability and responsibility; information sharing; culture; leadership; and staff and professional interaction.

A limitation of this study is that the characteristics are based on a limited literature search. The quality of some of the literature both gray and published was not definitive: information on how they undertook the literature search was not provided; exclusion and inclusion criteria were not included; and there was insufficient detail on the design of the studies included. Furthermore, the literature reviews are based on integrated initiatives that target both seniors and non-senior’s based services. The cross-section of initiatives studied is also different in scale and type, and these differences were not explored.

The case definition is a useful tool in aiding to further the understanding of integrated health and social care initiatives. The number of definitions that exist for integrated health and social care initiatives can make it confusing to clearly understand this field and topic. The characteristics identified can assist in providing greater clarity and understanding on health and social care integration.

This study provides greater coherence in the literature on health and social care integration. It aids in better framing the phenomenon of healthcare and social services integration, thereby enhancing understanding. Finally, the study provides a very useful and concrete list of identifying characteristics, to aid in identifying integrated health and social care initiatives that serve older adults.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into firms' innovation competencies and to develop an instrument to examine the key innovation competencies that contribute to integrated services.

Data were collected via the initial 80‐item questionnaire given to innovation‐related key figures within the Taiwanese communications industry (sample size 500; valid response rate 75.4 percent). The initial 80 items of innovation competencies and development procedures of measurement instrument were explored, exploited, and analyzed. The instrument validity of the multi‐aspect innovation competencies measure was evaluated through assessing convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity.

Research results indicate that five‐dimension and 17‐item constructs the measurement instrument of innovation competencies for integrated services. An examination of individual dimensions' effect on “overall innovation competencies” shows that industry specific (0.45) is the most important dimension, followed by market related (0.23), technology related (0.14), product related (0.13), and organization related (0.13).

This study is conducted in only one industry (communications) and one country (Taiwan).

Integration capabilities of different innovation competencies of a firm is vital for the successful development of integrated services, and out of all the innovation competencies, industry‐specific innovation competencies are the most important. A firm should then identify potential markets and trends and fully utilize their human resource capabilities to develop innovative services, along with senior executives' awareness and acceptance of risk.

This paper may be the first to identify the measurement instrument of innovation competencies for integrated services and will expand the scope of service innovation research.

This article describes the strategy for delivering integrated care in Trafford on a whole‐systems basis. It describes an approach to integrating services across primary care, community health services, social services and acute care. It covers the (clinically led) process of developing the strategic framework, the principles developed and used, and the specific programme to be carried out in 2010/11.

This article explains how joint agency services for children with special needs have been operating in Devon for a number of years. The business processes and ICT systems underpinning the service are described and specific key worker services are explained. The Fair Access to Carers' Breaks model explains how Devon has allocated financial resources to meet individual users' needs. This will be relevant to any authority looking for a transparent means of distributing equitably financial resources such as the additional resources provided by Aiming High for Disabled Children. The article goes on to describe how child and adolescent mental health services were added to the joint agency service and how the choice and partnership approach (CAPA) has virtually removed the waiting list for this service in Devon. The article then describes how further integration of services will be achieved by establishing early response and further response services which will include the Public Health Nursing Service and Education staff.

The aim of this paper is to report the process, findings and implications of a three‐year evaluation of integrated health centres (IHCs) established in three secondary schools in Cornwall by the School‐Based Integrated Health Centres (SBIHC) partnership.

When the partners had completed the capital works, an evaluation strategy was designed for 2009‐2012 to identify the extent to which each of the IHCs was meeting the aims set for the IHCs, and each IHC and school was contributing to the aims of the SBIHC project. Formative and summative evaluation used annual case studies to apply data progressively regarding: the use, users and operations of each IHC; students’ perceptions of the user‐friendliness of the IHCs; indicators of the general health and well‐being of students and their sexual and mental health; students’ exposure to crime, substance abuse and poverty; and students’ academic achievement, attendances and exclusions. This process culminated in this paper which reports and discusses findings, suggests implications for practice, theory and research and proposes future directions for the partnership.

All three schools engaged students closely in the design and decoration of their IHCs. Student ownership was extended into the selection of Coordinators and into centre management and governance. Budehaven Community School appointed a National Health Service (NHS)‐trained Coordinator for their IHC, The Haven, a mental health worker funded for one year by the NHS. After 2009‐2010, his responsibilities were shared by the NHS‐trained Receptionist and the Manager, an Assistant Headteacher. During Year 3, Budehaven added a “co‐location” building, Kevren. About 37 professionals are now located in or visit The Haven and Kevren. Student footfall doubled to about 4,000 in the second year and increased by another 25 per cent in the third year. The wide range of general, mental and sexual health services were highly valued by the students. The Crayon, the IHC in Hayle Community School, achieved a similar footfall over three years. It started with a Receptionist and the Pupil Welfare Officer. The Manager, a Deputy Headteacher, and the Headteacher moving most student support services into the IHC at the end of Year 1. From then on the Crayon had three full‐time professionals. By the end of Year 3, the Crayon had reached the limits of its facilities. A solely positive association was found between IHC usage and measured improvements to mental health and academic progress. The IHC in Penair School, Bywva, developed a wide range of general, sexual and mental health services, attracted a similarly strong footfall, and also reached capacity in Year 3. Penair refined their IHC's line management by an Assistant Headteacher and coordination by a Lead.

This paper offers a new conceptual model of the SBIHC model of health care centred on the reciprocity and integrity of relationships between students and professionals.

Policy has identified the need for integrated dementia services for older people. However, the role of the formal carer within an integrated framework of service delivery has not been well articulated in practice. The aim of this paper is to understand the experiences of formal carers working with the context of an integrated dementia service by exploring findings from a research‐based evaluation.

The evaluation captured the experiences of formal carers working within the service via observations, semi‐structured interviews and focus groups.

Working with an integrated service brings about individual, social and organisational challenges to the role of the formal carer, in terms of: delivering flexibility and responsiveness, providing continuity of care, ensuring cross‐organisational working and acquiring skills, knowledge and expertise.

To facilitate the successful delivery of integrated care, the emerging role of the formal carer needs to be more clearly articulated and supported within a service context.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a proposed Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions of goods and services.

This conceptual paper follows the principles of design research in developing a Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions. The approach is tested in practice in the context of a financial services company in the automotive industry.

The study demonstrates that the differential characteristics of service processes and manufacturing processes must be taken into account when developing a Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions. Evaluation of the proposed approach in cooperation with a financial services company reveals considerable benefits.

The detailed description of the approach is limited to the “Define” phase of the Six Sigma program. Moreover, the proposed approach is tested in only one setting; its application in other settings should be an objective for future research.

The paper provides practitioners with a structured Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions.

The paper is the first to propose a Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions of goods and services.

Integrated service models aim to simplify access, enable effective delivery, remove duplication and provide a holistic and person-centred approach. This project explored the development of integrated well-being services in two local authorities in North-East England. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

Underpinned by public health and co-production approaches, the project utilised a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected via online surveys (n = 95), virtual interviews with members of the local population (n = 8) and practitioners and commissioners (n = 8) to explore needs for a new service. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes and issues.

Several benefits of an integrated service were highlighted by both staff and service users, with a central anticipated benefit being the provision of holistic care. Improvement in information sharing was also seen to increase the efficiency of services and communication barriers between services. Beneficial aspects and barriers related to the COVID-19 pandemic on current service provision were reported that have informed our future recommendations.

The authors’ findings provide a much deeper insight into function, care, social inclusion and ongoing support needs, from both the perspectives of staff and service users. Service users and staff saw value in an integrated model for themselves, as well as the wider community. The authors’ findings indicate that the integrated service model is a promising one for the development of services within local authorities.

There is a general consensus that healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities should be provided by multi-disciplinary teams. Within a forensic setting, recommendations are often made for separate or “parallel” forensic teams, operating independently of generic mental health or intellectual disability teams. An alternative to this model is an “integrated” service, where specialist forensic clinicians work within the general intellectual disability service, to provide support for clients with forensic needs. For clients with intellectual disabilities and forensic needs, there may be advantages to providing access to a wider multi-disciplinary team, through the application of an integrated model. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the working of an integrated forensic service within a learning disability team, to identify positive aspects of this model, and how potential shortcomings may be overcome.

Literature review, description of service outline with case example.

Although some studies have compared parallel and integrated forensic models within mental health services, there are no evaluations that compare models of forensic services for individuals with intellectual disabilities. However, specific advantages of an integrated model may include availability of multi-disciplinary clinicians, development of forensic skills across wider groups of clinicians, reduction in stigma and avoidance of delay in transfer of care between services. In addition, in areas with smaller populations, parallel services may not be feasible due to low case numbers.

There has been no formal evaluation of parallel vs integrated forensic services within an intellectual disability setting. However, the authors describe a fully integrated service and suggest means by which the potential shortcomings of an integrated model may be overcome.

This article analyses a major healthcare and social welfare reform establishing new regional and integrated wellbeing services counties in Finland. The authors approach the reform and service integration as a knowledge management (KM) issue and analyse how KM appears and contributes in the context of integrated care, specifically in the process of integrating social and health care.

The article analyses the case organisation's KM initiatives in light of the integrated care literature and recognises the tasks and requirements for effective KM when building integrated health and social care system. The empirical research material for this qualitative study consisted of the case organisation's strategy documents, the results of an external maturity assessment, KM workshop materials and publicly available documentation of the Finnish health and social care reform.

This study identifies the mechanisms by which KM can support health and social services integration. At the macro level, national coordination and regional co-operation require common information structures. At the meso level, a shared regional strategy with shared objectives guides both organisational decision-making and collaboration between professionals. At the micro level, technology supported and data-driven planning of service chains complements the experiences of professionals and may help remove obstacles to integration.

This study contributes to the literature on integrated care by providing a more comprehensive view of the role and tasks of knowledge and KM when reforming health and social services than approaches focussing solely on health informatics and internal efficiency.