ABSTRACT
Doing research on long-term care with a focus on the interfaces between health and social care, between institutional and community care and between primary and secondary health care calls for a broad scope of experience and perspectives that often go beyond classic scholarly divisions. “Providing Integrated Health and Social Care for Older Persons” (PROCARE) is an international research project co-financed by the European Union’s Fifth Framework Programme. PROCARE is one of the first attempts to map the relatively weakly documented area of integration in health and social care for the older client group. In all countries, social care service systems are characterised by a definitely shorter history than health care systems. Both general comparisons and the ensuing attempt to categorise different systems, specific areas of social policies, health policies, and detailed studies on long-term care systems for older persons have elaborated on these differences and thus enriched the scientific and political debate.
