Can technology – based services support long-term care challenges in home care? Analysis of evidence from social innovation good practices across the EU CARICT Project Summary Report

Deployment and use of technological services for informal carers is still limited, mainly due to users' low digital skills, the lack of demonstrated business cases, and the poor evidence of the impact and sustainability of these services. The CARICT project aimed to collect evidence-based results on the impact of ICT-enabled domiciliary care services, and to make policy recommendations to develop, scale and replicate them in the European Union. The methodology was based on a mapping of 52 ICT-based services for informal carers developed in Europe, and a cross–analysis of 12 of these initiatives to get data on their impacts, drivers, business models, success factors, and challenges. The main results show that there is a wide range of successful, not very costly and beneficial examples of ICT-based support for carers across Europe. The cross-analysis indicated that these services had positive impacts on the quality of life of elderly people and informal carers, the quality of care and the financial sustainability of the health and social systems. The data also confirm that policy at European, national, regional and local levels can promote the successful development, implementation and transferability of these services through funding, policy leadership and by promoting stronger cooperation among stakeholders including end-users, mainly from the third sector and informal carers, to create a new value chain in the provision of long-term care. These findings help to achieve the objectives of European policy defined by the 2020 Strategy, and more specifically the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) and the European Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIP AHA).