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Chapter 7166various settings, including community centres, schools, primary care, and hospitals, often as part of multidisciplinary teams. This substitution also builds on the experience established in Dutch primary care with special elderly care nurse practitioners, who are present in nearly half of general practices28 and provide integrative person-centred care in cooperation with care professionals inside and outside the primary care practice. 29 Just like people with MID, the elderly are often extra vulnerable patients who present themselves with multi-problems in more than one life domain, need continuity and monitoring, and have several different care professionals involved. An ID-NP could work locally or regionally in primary care practices to support practitioners and organize and provide continuity of care to patients with all levels of ID. The experiences gained internationally, along with Dutch elderly care NPs, can provide insights into whether and how an ID-NP would be of added value in primary practices, both for continuity of care and the domain-transcending organization of care (see also the opportunity: ‘Domain-transcending collaborative care’). Box 7.3. Recommendations to improve continuity of care What practitioners can doy Invest extra time and effort in establishing a trustful practitioner–patient relationshipy Book double consultation with the regular practitioner; adequate registration of mild intellectual disabilities in the medical file can be a reminder for the support staff to do so y Acquire skills and use existing tools for appropriate communication and information transfery Schedule regular follow-up consultations y Work in small, stable, and familiar primary care teams with two to three regular general practitioners What practitioners’ and patients’ networks can doy Ensure longitudinal and relational continuity in practitioners’ and patients’ networks (see also Box 7.4)What health policymakers can doy Further invest in high-quality, accessible, and affordable primary care for now and in the futureWhat researchers can doy Conduct research on the added value of an intellectual disability nurse practitioner regarding the continuity of careKatrien Pouls sHL.indd 166 24-06-2024 16:26