title: Caring network based on community social alarm centers in Slovenia: a country in transition.
abstract: Elderly, disabled, and sick people should be assisted to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible--this is a generally accepted philosophy of modern societies. A caring network based on community social alarms can significantly improve home-based care coordination, its efficiency, and quality. According to long-term experiences in some developed European countries, this has multifold positive influences on the society. Promising results have encouraged the implementation of such a system in Slovenia--a young mid-european country in transition, where restrictive governmental economic policy also influences social and medical standards that were agreed to under the former socialistic government. In Ljubljana--the capital of Slovenia with 250,000 inhabitants--the first community social alarm center was established in 1992. Based on two years of experience, a national plan for several regional centers, covering the whole country, was prepared. The government should provide a telecommunication infrastructure, but the local authorities and formal service providers should establish local conditions for its implementation. The project has been seeking to obtain its legitimacy as a governmental project.
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Social Medicine, Slovenia.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rudel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Premik
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hojnik-Zupanc
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019058:Community Networks; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015277:Hotlines / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017524:Slovenia; D018511:Systems Integration