Zagreb Meeting 2025

🗓️ On June 26, 2025, the BetterCare Working Group 2, led by Prof. Paulo Sousa and Prof. Dr. Bojana Knežević, held a meeting at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb in Croatia. The day was filled with various activities (see the programme below) and began with insightful presentations by local experts on the topic “The contribution of informal care in long-term care for adults.” These sessions sparked meaningful discussions and encouraged the exchange of experiences among participants from different countries.

🧭 The group then focused on one of its core tasks—“Mapping and evaluating existing guidelines on informal care.” Following a presentation on the current national guidelines and regulations for informal caregivers in participating countries, gathered through an online questionnaire, participants engaged in small-group discussions. These discussions aimed to identify practical ways to develop user-friendly tools that would help informal caregivers easily access clear and relevant information about their rights and responsibilities in their respective countries. It was concluded that the questionnaire would be re-sent in order to collect additional relevant information from other countries.

📝 A dedicated session was also held to discuss the latest version of “The BetterCare Glossary/Taxonomy,” inviting feedback and suggestions for refinement. After the presentation, each participant was invited to write a comment for each item in the Glossary/Taxonomy form. Following the discussion, it was agreed that the Glossary/Taxonomy would be re-sent to participants via email in order to collect expert opinions using the Delphi technique, aiming to reach a consensus. The next step is to develop the BetterCare Taxonomy.

📚 The last session was a presentation of a scoping review (ScR) titled “Emergency Management in Home Care by Family Caregivers”, followed by a discussion on the research plan for a systematic review focused on preparedness interventions for informal caregivers and their outcomes.

📩 The next WG2 meeting is scheduled to take place towards the end of the year. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all participants for their active engagement and valuable contributions in the form of ideas, expertise, and shared experiences. 🙏