07/29/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/29/2024 06:15
When I was a child, I would go to my grandfather's store where he sold and repaired watches. He would give me a magnifying glass and let me help him. Before my eyes would appear springs and tiny jagged pieces that made up the inside of each clock. What I liked most was to see how they moved in time with each other. Like any curious child, I would ask my grandfather which was the piece without which the clock would not work. He would explain that it didn't matter the size or shape of the pieces, they were all important and had to work together so that the clock could fulfill its function: to measure and tell the exact time.
With that lesson I understood the importance of coordination and how each component, no matter how small, is vital to the functioning of an entire system. Integrated care systems not only improve lives; they build more just, equitable and sustainable societies. For that to happen, like the mechanism of a watch, we need to coordinate and connect all its parts.
An integrated care system can be defined as the set of regulations, institutions and policies designed both to assist and support people who require it, and to recognize, reduce and redistribute the unpaid care work that continues to be performed mainly by women. Care is a basic need for people's daily lives and, at the same time, it enables social and labor force reproduction.
Integrated care systems have the following three main characteristics:
The five components of Integrated Care Systems according to the United Nations are:
One of the main challenges in advancing care policies and systems is their sustainable financing. Implementing systems of care that serve more people and with higher quality requires allocating more resources to these policies. Each country must determine how to move gradually toward building comprehensive systems of care in accordance with its priorities and resources.
In general, the countries of the region finance these policies with general revenues, facing challenges such as budgetary restrictions and possible changes in the public agenda in the face of new governments.
If the resources are properly implemented, the economic and social returns can be significant, including increased well-being of individuals, job creation and facilitating women's participation in the labor force. This not only increases household income, but also activates the economy.
A second challenge of comprehensive care systems is the governance model. This must articulate all the efforts and resources of the institutions that provide care services at the national and subnational levels, including coordination with civil society and the private sector.
The chart below summarizes the components and main characteristics of Integrated Care Systems and, at the same time, is the roadmap that guided the discussions at the Regional Policy Dialogue: "Integrated Care Systems: Boosting Well-being, Equity and the Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean". It took place in Antigua, Guatemala, in July 2024, and was organized by the Gender and Diversity Division and the Social Protection and Health Division of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Among the main conclusions of the Regional Policy Dialogue was that the region is making progress in the consolidation of comprehensive care policies and systems. Although the progress and challenges of each country are different, the important thing is to recognize that, in comprehensive care systems, as in the machinery of a watch, all the pieces are relevant. We need them all to work together to achieve the main objective: to improve people's lives.