Natalia Postolachi is a leading champion in building up services with older people and co-creating age-friendly communities in the Republic of Moldova. She is the director and co-founder of the public association CASMED: a non-governmental, independent, non-profit organization supporting older and other disadvantaged people. In 2006, Natalia started to pilot in the northern part of Moldova home-based services for older and people with disabilities. Over the years, the services were adapted to better respond to the needs of older people and improve sustainability, and currently CASMED is the biggest provider of integrated home-based care in Moldova.
Through a team of 80 para-medical staff, CASMED provides non-discretionary, affordable access to good-quality preventive, curative, rehabilitative and end of life care. The services allow older people to stay for as long as possible at their home. In Moldova, this would be challenging without the services of CASMED as most older people live alone, and with limited resources available the development of community-based services is difficult. Natalia Postolachi’s innovation in addition to testing a new, integrated model of care itself through CASMED is the creation of a multi-funding model where health insurance, local authorities, clients and private donors together cover the cost of home care services and ensure provision of services in 71 communities across Moldova.
Natalia Postolachi’s leadership has been recognised through her role as Deputy Chair of the National Network of Home Care Providers. In this role, she provided expertise to the national government in the development of the regulatory framework and standards for integrated Home Based Care (HBC) services. Natalia Postolachi’s work is an inspiring example of the possibility to provide responsive, integrated health and social care in the community even within resource-challenged contexts.