Overview

Across Europe data suggest that an ageing of the population, coupled with changes in the availability of informal family support, increasing costs of care and raised expectations on the quality, intensity and flexibility of services may raise major challenges for policy-makers contending with maintaining or extending coverage and support for long-term care systems. To be sustainable long-term care systems need to be affordable, fair and flexible. In a given context, public consensus needs to be achieved around any mechanism of long-term care funding. National governments, as part of their stewardship of the health system, can consider steps to: (‎i)‎ ensure that comprehensible information and advocates to help individuals navigate long-term care systems are in place; (‎ii)‎ assure quality standards, provide support for informal carers and facilitate flexibility in care package choices (‎such as through cash payments)‎; and (‎iii)‎ pursue measures to improve coordination between the long-term care and associated sectors. With many countries facing similar challenges, member states of the European Region may be able to draw on lessons from international experience in long-term care systems, both from Europe and beyond.