The ITHACA project develops application software to support person centred care within mental health, maternal and child health and elderly care based on a common framework. The applications include the following functionalities: individual assessment, care evaluation, home telecare and service optimization. User requirements were collected from 10 sites involved in project using a common methodology. This information was consolidated into a common user requirements functional model with the common requirements for all client groups and sites identified. From this, high level functional specifications and design models have been developed, defining a common community care framework.
Object modelling techniques were used to develop: the external view of the ITHACA system which shows the services that the system offers to its users (use Case Model); the sequence of tasks that take place within every system service and the classes that interact with each one of them (object interaction diagrams); the static properties of the system (object diagrams).In addition detailed functional specifications for demonstrator sites have also been developed. A demonstrator has also been developed to assess the use of geographical information systems as a tool for optimizing service management. This has been developed in the form of a compact disc (CD) which can be used to educate and encourage the development of special considerations within community health and social care provision.