Assessing the transferability potential of policy practices for older people.

Abstract

Background: Policies in the fields of health and long-term care are constantly under pressure to ensure the balance between economic stability and an adequate quality of life for all the citizens in need, while policy makers are engaged in finding the most adequate responses to population ageing concerns. Demographic changes create multiple concerns to which policy makers and practitioners need to develop interventions. The aim of this paper is to assess the transferability potential of selected best practices from Norway to Romania in order to increase the social inclusion of older people.

Methods: This approach comprises a mixture of methods. It uses a SWOT analysis to select best practices and a Policy Delphi methodology with experts in relevant fields of social policy for older people (health and long-term care) to assess the transferability potential of those best practices.

Results: The results suggest that the transferability of best practices is closely linked to the national context.

Conclusions: The transferability of best practices from one national context to another is an effective way to advance social policies for older persons, provided that the economic, social, political and cultural circumstances are considered. The results highlight the need for change in the development of policy measures for the selected domains of social policy. To create such change, policy makers should consider the level of development of health and long-term care systems.