Good Practices on Frailty

It describes what the Action Group is about, its main areas of work and focuses on the results of the collection of Good Practices.

It provides conclusions for advancing in the reconfiguration of health and care provision and analyses potential policy implications at EU level.

The report was prepared under the supervision of Maria Iglesia Gomez (Head of Unit DG SANCO). The main contributors were: Inés García-Sánchez, Anna Carta, and Jorge Pinto Antunes based on the materials sent by the members of the Action Groupon prevention of frailty during July-August 2013.

The need to have a clearer picture of on-going interventions to prevent and tackle frailty in old age in Europe pushed the Action Group on "Prevention of frailty" to collect in a booklet their good practices in this field. The final text gathers 98 good practices coming from 14 Member States.

Within these 98 good practices, are the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine (CSFM), University of Crete Faculty of Medicine and the Primary Care Cretan Practice–Based Research Network (CPRN), which has been officially accredited by the Regional Health Care Authorities and is operated by the CSFM.

1. The Booklet identifies and maps existing interventions with impact on the health and wellbeing of older people; these Good Practices are making a positive difference at local or regional level in the quality of life of older individuals as well as in the ways professionals or informal care-givers support them.

2. The Collection serves to promote the "culture of frailty approach" among the EIP members and among a broader audience of stakeholders interested in the subject. It presents promising new lines of action which have the potential of further supporting the understanding of the ageing process and offers examples targeted to vulnerable older adults to delay or prevent the adverse consequences of frailty.

3. The critical mass of experiences and knowledge coming out from interventions already in place, such as those presented in this text, helps pave the way to the reduction of age related frailty, disability and the suffering associated to it.

4. Work on frailty will be relevant if effective health promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and care interventions are identified, implemented and tailored to the needs of older people and the setting where they live. The experiences collected in this Booklet demonstrate how this is being implemented in different settings and circumstances.

5. The Collection presents examples that propose and promote health and social systems reorganization with a frailty preventive approach. This implies interventions in the clinical settings, work at community level, incorporation of ICT solutions and research that respond to un-answered dilemmas. 

6. The Collection provides examples of long-term, standardized and sustainable interventions on physical exercise, cognitive stimulation and balanced nutrition that have proven to make a difference in preventing the deterioration of the older person and even more in helping improving conditions in frail patients too.