Long-term care organization and financing

Long-term care is support directed to individuals who have reduced cognitive, physical or sensory capacity for self-care within the environments they inhabit, with the aims of improving personal functioning, independence in daily living tasks and quality of life. Most long-term care today is provided or facilitated by recipients’ family members, although state and private formal provision is becoming more prominent in many parts of the world. Financing of long-term care relies heavily on collective prepayment and out-of-pocket arrangements made by care recipients and their families. The indirect costs of providing ‘informal,’ unpaid care are challenging to calculate but likely to be significant, especially when care needs are more advanced. Self-directed support systems have been introduced in some countries. The future affordability of long-term care is a major challenge across the world.