The ICOPE (Integrated Care for the Elderly) programme, published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2019, is based on the assessment and monitoring of six essential personal functions (mobility, nutrition, vision, hearing, cognition, psychology) and the implementation of an integrated care pathway aimed at maintaining autonomy for healthy ageing. The ICOPE approach is aimed at independent seniors aged 60 and over and comprises 5 stages: identification (stage1), in-depth assessment (stage2), proposal of a care plan (stage3), follow-up (stage4), involvement of local authorities and support for carers (stage5). ICOPE is recognised at scientific and public health level as the most promising programme for enabling as many people as possible to age successfully.

France, which launched a national action plan to prevent loss of autonomy and various action plans on ageing well in 2015, has been trialling the ICOPE programme since 2019. Since then, the Toulouse University Hospital’s Gérontopôle, as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Frailty and Geroscience Research and Geriatric Training, has taken the initiative of rolling out the ICOPE programme in Occitanie with the support of the Regional Health Agency. In 2022, ICOPE will be rolled out on a national scale with the launch of the ICOPE National Experiment by the Ministry of Health, under the terms of Article 51. The target population for the ICOPE programme is senior citizens aged 60 and over living at home.

By 1 January 2025, thanks to the roll-out of the ICOPE programme, more than 70,000 seniors had already joined this public health programme in France and were being monitored by healthcare professionals in their local area. The objective of the IHU HealthAge is to get 500,000 senior citizens to sign up to this prevention programme in 5 years, and 2 million in 10 years.

To achieve this objective, the IHU HealthAge is focusing on 4 areas:

  • ICOPE Monitor digital tools that it has developed to make it easier for professionals to carry out assessments and collect data, thereby enabling the ICOPE programme to be widely disseminated
  • training professionals through the ICOPE e-learning platform, which has enabled over 7,000 professionals to be trained in the ICOPE programme
  • close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie (CNAM) and the Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS) of Occitanie, as well as partnerships with public and private institutions
  • communication, with the creation of the « icope.fr» website for the general public, the ‘Ma Santé avec ICOPE’ Facebook page and a host of information tools for senior citizens and professionals alike

The IHU HealthAge works in close collaboration with all the players involved in the care of senior citizens in order to integrate the prevention of dependency into the clinical practice of professionals and to extend the culture of ageing well to the general public.

 

 

Regional Team for Ageing and Dependency Prevention

The ERVPD team set up within the Toulouse Gérontopôle – IHU HealthAge is responsible for deploying ICOPE. This team also provides support for innovative projects in the field of dependency prevention in the Occitanie region, with the backing of the Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS). The first action taken by the ERVPD in 2012 involved the creation of Territorial Teams for Ageing and Dependency Prevention (ETVPD). There is one team per département, i.e. 13 teams in Occitanie, made up of health professionals and professionals from the medico-social and social sector, and coordinated by the referring geriatricians and the ARS département delegates. To date, the ETVPD network has more than 4,800 members.

Since its creation, ERVPD has chosen to develop 3 priority areas:

  • Deployment of actions to prevent dependency:
    • The ICOPE programme: ERVPD is currently coordinating the implementation of the ICOPE programme in the Occitanie region.
    • Care for frail elderly people: since 2012, more than 200 assessment and care structures for frail elderly people have been developed in the Occitanie region thanks to the work of the ERVPD and the ETVPD.
    • Preventing dependency among hospitalised elderly people
      Prevention of iatrogenic medication
    • Early diagnosis of cognitive disorders and their complications
  • Education: a number of training courses are organised by ERVPD for healthcare professionals and senior citizens, with the aim of raising awareness of dependency prevention.
  • Developing research by facilitating access to clinical research in peripheral hospitals in the Occitanie region in order to make them more attractive to young students.

The ERVPD is pursuing its missions and actions in close collaboration with ARS Occitanie, and with the support of the 4,800 members of the 13 ETVPDs throughout the Occitanie region.