Comparing local policy practices to implement ICT-based home care services for aging-in-place in Finland, France, Italy, Spain & Sweden

Background. The current aging of the population across Europe is creating multiple challenges to the European states as well as to the European authorities. They have to design and implement sustainable policies for aging-in-place (for home care services for the elderly) to improve their wellbeing and inclusion in the information society. So far, several European initiatives have been runned to bring answers and solutions. Research aim. The aim of this paper is to understand wether and how several local authorities in the European Union build regulations and strategies for the ICT-based home care services intended to the elderly and where they stand regarding the literature’s recommendations. Method. We focus on the results of the SILHOUETTE project, that was part of CREATOR, an INTERREG-IV C mini-programme. We particularly focus on the public policy practices for the development of the ICT-based solutions for aging-in-place (home care services for the elderly) that the project identified. This paper is an analytical and comparative synthesis of these data in relation to the scientific literature. Public policy practices have been compared across territories of seven European countries. Results. We found that the seven regions are at different levels of maturity of public policy practices and that the SILHOUETTE project succeeded to enlighten different ways to boost the implementation of ICT-based solutions. Discussion. From this comparison we built a table showing the integrated stages of local strategies’ development. Comparison with the literature showed a greater development of Nordic countries, with the Finnish region being the only one whose guidelines included a great number of recommendations. Moreover, in this sector, the East/West gap is less present than in the global long-term care services sector and studies from other regions of the world can be useful for European stakeholders.