For Austria, the pilot was implemented in the region of Styria, where the InCARE team of Chance B focused on improving integrated care.

One important aspect was to create networking opportunities for individuals in the field: professionals, users, informal carers, case managers, civil servants and others. Since the pilot was implemented just after the end of pandemic lockdown periods, a lot of individuals involved in services for elderly people had only been in contact with each other by phone or by mail, or had not yet been in contact at all.

Following a study visit in Utrecht in November 2022 (organised by the partner organisation Vilans) the team has been even further convinced that direct, personal contact between the different stakeholders is a key factor in improving integrated care. With this in mind, the team took care of inviting a diverse group of stakeholders to the following InCARE training modules. The content of these modules, developed by the local InCARE team within Chance B, builds on practical know-how on both counselling and direct support of informal carers.

At the same time, due to Covid-19 prevention measures, it remained impossible to bring people together in one single room for some periods within the project lifespan. The team created therefore additional online spaces for exchange and getting to know each other. Both the Theory of Change workshops and a number of stakeholder meetings were held online. On these occasions, participants had a lot of room for exchange in small groups and enough time to interact with each other, which proved successful as their feedback was very positive.

In the last third of the project implementation phase, it was time to hold a regular meeting for persons with dementia and their next to kind. This format was successful and created high visibility of InCARE in the local commune. And last but not least, InCARE succeeded in improving some of the procedures and workflows in the provision of mobile home care. Most of these InCARE activities have a follow-up perspective and some are already scaling up. To summarize, the InCARE Chance B team has certainly given relevant impulses for improving integrated care in the region and beyond.