ABSTRACT
In Italy the problem of integrated health and social care exists since the national health system was eventually given birth in 1978 thus overcoming the old corporatist system with assistance assigned to the mutualistic agencies of the various professional categories. This chapter outlines the process towards integration from the health reform until today, in order to show the problems that are unsolved on the theoretical, financial and managerial level. A health care decree, no. 502/1992, the “Objective: Ageing Persons” project, and Law no. 328/2000 pertaining to the creation of an integrated care and social services system are the national normative framework for the definition and promotion of an integrated health and care system. Individual planning and the provision of services are taking place on two distinct levels, with different actors involved, thus triggering that need for coordination in order to guarantee seamless and efficient care provision to older persons.
