Policy brief: How can the settings used to provide care to older people be balanced?
Année de publication: 2008
The optimal balance between institutional, home-based and community care
for older adults requires an effective mix of organizational, funding and delivery
mechanisms for target populations. This spans health and social care, and the
coordination of care must respect older people’s care preferences and that of
their families and friends as well as limits on the available resources to support
and fund service provision.
Care settings used to provide long-term care for older people and how they are
defined vary greatly across Europe. This policy brief addresses the appropriate
balance between three main components of long-term care: home care
services; institutional care (formal and informal sectors); and care provided by
family and friends (informal care).
The dramatic upward trend in the cost and use of long-term care, the projected
impact of ageing populations and the prevalence of age-related chronic disease
and dependency ratios have catalysed proposals to redesign the funding,
organization and delivery of affordable, effective and equitable health and
social care for older people.