The DESDE-PECUNIA classification system was developed by the Psicost team in order to code the service prototypes in the PECUNIA sectors Health and social care (WP1), Education and Criminal justice (WP2) as well as Patient, family and informal care (WP4). This has included an extension of the coding system with relevant contributions by the WP2 lead, University of Maastricht.
Since its publication in 2000 the ESMS/DESDE tools have been widely applied to code inputs of care (services) designed for specific target groups in the health and the social sectors (e.g. mental disorders, drug and alcohol, intellectual disabilities, disabilities, persons with social disadvantage). The coding system follows an integrated /holistic approach and codes all services available for a target population beyond health and social care (for example, it includes services in education, justice, employment and housing). DESDE-PECUNIA is focused on the assessment of throughput not only for target designed services, but also for generic services in the sectors education, employment and justice.
To fit the classification needs in PECUNIA (Horizontal Activity 2 – Definition of services), the Psicost team adapted the tool for the analysis of these other sectors. During this process, specific criteria for identifying the sector to which the service belongs were developed and changes in terminology have been included in the classification system (e.g. change from Basic stable input of “care” to Basic Stable Input of “Service”). A whole new main branch for evaluation and assessment has been added and a secondary branch for differentiating daily life activities from other types of social care.
In the future, the system will be adapted to the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) World Health Organization -Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC).
This updated version of the coding system is called “DESDE-PECUNIA”.