A framework for understanding and implementing long-term care systems

Identify gaps in the World Health Organization's framework on long-term care and propose a new framework to support the design and implementation of LTC systems.

Policy paper DATA SOURCE AND ANALYTIC SAMPLE: Based on the World Health Organization's framework on long-term care, as well as the literature on health systems frameworks, this article develops a new proposal that considers missing elements as well as the need to introduce long-term care idiosyncratic components.

The framework establishes the need to consider functions such as prevention and rehabilitation and assessment of needs, as well as other elements like the existence of different types of beneficiaries, different schemes to provide services, and the inclusion of individual preferences into the framework.

Incorporating idiosyncratic elements to the debate can help countries in the task of designing and implementing better long-term care systems.