Long-Term Care in an Aging Society


Book Description

This comprehensive graduate textbook focuses on the full spectrum of long-term care settings ranging from family and community based care through supportive housing options to a variety of institutional long-term care alternatives. Integrating theory and practice, the book features the perspectives of diverse fields regarding current long-term care options and new directions for the future. Prominent scholars from history, environmental design, family caregiving, gerontology, social service delivery, clinical care, health service delivery, public policy, finance, law, and ethics explore such themes as: Relationships among independence, dependence, and interdependence Ethical considerations in the provision of long-term care Decision-making in long-term care Fluidity and transitions in long-term care The lived experience of long-term care A micro-macro perspective ranging from the individual to societal institutions The book examines future directions for long-term care, considering such factors as the interface of technology and long-term care, cultural diversity, and relationships between voluntary and paid services. Each chapter includes case examples, study questions, and exercises, additional resources, and website links. The appendices provide a glossary and a list of acronyms. Instructorís resources are also available. Key Features: Focuses on the full array of long-term care options Integrates theory and practice Incorporates the perspectives of diverse fields including history, environmental design, family caregiving, social services and public policy Includes numerous case examples, study questions, exercises, and additional resources Considers new approaches to long-term care incorporating technology and considering cultural diversity and the relationship between voluntary and paid services




Ageing, Long-term Care Insurance and Healthcare Finance in Asia


Book Description

This book uses a revised version of Kingdon’s multiple-streams framework to examine health financing reforms in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) as well as long-term care insurance (LTCI) reforms in Japan and Singapore. It shows that the explanatory power of the multiple-streams framework can be strengthened through enriching the concepts of policy entrepreneurs, ideas, and windows of opportunity in the original framework as well as bringing the theoretical lens of historical institutionalism into the framework.




Ageing and Effecting Long-term Care in China


Book Description

Recognizing rapidly ageing population is one key concern faced by cities and the challenge it would present to healthcare system, this book looks at ageing in China’s population as well as the delivery and financing of long-term care (LTC) in China. The book compares key features of long-term care insurance (LTCI) schemes in 15 pilot cities and evaluates the sustainability of various financing models adopted by the cities in the LTCI schemes. The book uses an interpretive case study approach to give an in-depth look into the LTC models in three pilot cities – Qingdao, Nantong, and Shanghai. The three cities represent three different models of financing and delivering LTC. To assess how effective the LTC models in these three cities are, the book uses five criteria, including utilization of medical resources, cost, equity, quality of care and sustainability. Also, the authors discuss how the financing and delivery of LTC can be improved in China, the impact of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on older adults in need of LTC in the country and the implications of China’s LTCI reform for other countries. The book will be a useful reference to scholars and policy-makers who look at urban ageing and healthcare costs and delivery.




Sustainable Health and Long-Term Care Solutions for an Aging Population


Book Description

Lasting healthcare for the entire population, specifically the elderly, has become a main priority in society. It is imperative to find ways to boost the longevity of healthcare services for all users. Sustainable Health and Long-Term Care Solutions for an Aging Population is a pivotal reference source featuring the latest scholarly research on issues pertinent to health cost and finding effective ways of financing healthcare for the elderly. Including coverage on a number of topics such as provider accreditation, corporate social responsibility, and data management, this book is ideally designed for policy makers, academicians, researchers, and advanced-level students seeking current research on the innovative planning and development of healthcare.




Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care


Book Description

Among the issues confronting America is long-term care for frail, older persons and others with chronic conditions and functional limitations that limit their ability to care for themselves. Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care takes a comprehensive look at the quality of care and quality of life in long-term care, including nursing homes, home health agencies, residential care facilities, family members and a variety of others. This book describes the current state of long-term care, identifying problem areas and offering recommendations for federal and state policymakers. Who uses long-term care? How have the characteristics of this population changed over time? What paths do people follow in long term care? The committee provides the latest information on these and other key questions. This book explores strengths and limitations of available data and research literature especially for settings other than nursing homes, on methods to measure, oversee, and improve the quality of long-term care. The committee makes recommendations on setting and enforcing standards of care, strengthening the caregiving workforce, reimbursement issues, and expanding the knowledge base to guide organizational and individual caregivers in improving the quality of care.




Aging Well


Book Description

This open access book outlines the challenges of supporting the health and wellbeing of older adults around the world and offers examples of solutions designed by stakeholders, healthcare providers, and public, private and nonprofit organizations in the United States. The solutions presented address challenges including: providing person-centered long-term care, making palliative care accessible in all healthcare settings and the home, enabling aging-in-place, financing long-term care, improving care coordination and access to care, delivering hospital-level and emergency care in the home and retirement community settings, merging health and social care, supporting people living with dementia and their caregivers, creating communities and employment opportunities that are accessible and welcoming to those of all ages and abilities, and combating the stigma of aging. The innovative programs of support and care in Aging Well serve as models of excellence that, when put into action, move health spending toward a sustainable path and greatly contribute to the well-being of older adults.




Ageing and Long-term Care


Book Description

The case studies in this book focus on the emergence, extent and nature of national policies on ageing and associated strategies to address long-term care needs. Key opportunities for and constraints on policy are identified in this first round of regional studies, written by prominent researchers in Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, who are partners in the Ageing Research Network of the Asian Development Research Forum. The case-studies are set in the context of regional and international plans of action on ageing and the deliberations of the Second World Assembly on Ageing held in 2002.




Families Caring for an Aging America


Book Description

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.




Retooling for an Aging America


Book Description

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides. Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.




Happily Ever Older


Book Description

While Being Mortal (Atul Gawande) helped us understand disease and death, and Successful Aging (Daniel J. Levitin) showed us older years can be a time of joy and resilience, Happily Ever Older reveals how the right living arrangements can create a vibrancy that defies age or ability. Reporter Moira Welsh has spent years investigating retirement homes and long-term care facilities and wants to tell the dangerous stories. Not the accounts of falls or bedsores or overmedication, but of seniors living with purpose and energy and love. Stories that could change the status quo. Welsh takes readers across North America and into Europe on a whirlwind tour of facilities with novel approaches to community living, including a day program in a fake town out of the 1950s, a residence where seniors school their student roommates in beer pong, and an aging-in-place community in a forest where everyone seems to have a pet or a garden or both. The COVID-19 pandemic cruelly showed us that social isolation is debilitating, and Welsh tells stories of elders living with friendship, new and old, in their later years. Happily Ever Older is a warm, inspiring blueprint for change, proof that instead of warehousing seniors, we can create a future with strong social connections and a reason to go on living.