Long-Term Care

Evidence-based strategies about standards, funding, and operations in long-term, community-based or home-based care and support services.

How to Navigate this Page

Select policy targets and evidence-based strategies that are priorities and achievable within your setting and sector. Align with your mandate, capacity, jurisdictional boundaries, and scope of practice.

Strategies marked with ☔ are important for populations-at-risk.

Entry Point for Action:
Reflects the organization’s or government unit’s sector scope and mandate

Policy Target:
Relates to the initiative’s focus

Evidence-based Strategies:
Concrete actions to guide initiatives’ design, delivery, and evaluation

ENTRY POINT FOR ACTION

Expand Provision, Regulation, and Funding to Care, Education, and Transportation Services

Policy Target: Long-term care

Government units provide substantive public financing to no-cost or highly subsidized long-term care provision and use funds effectively to ensure equitable access to appropriate high quality long-term care services to all who need them ☔

SAMPLE INDICATORS

Number of high-quality, public non-profit (no-cost or affordable) nursing care and assisted living care facilities relative to population and geographic distribution
Individual’s perception of access to high-quality, public non-profit (no-cost or affordable) nursing care and assisted living care facilities
Number of high-quality, public non-profit (no-cost or affordable) home- and community-based services relative to population and geographic distribution
Availability/supply of long-term care facilities relative to local needs
Number of home- and community-based services, stratified by area of residence
Number/percentage of people assisted by home- and community-based services
Number/percentage of participants who feel home- and community-based services enable them to remain in their communities and live meaningful and full lives
Number of high-quality and affordable long-term care options for seniors and people experiencing disabilities, stratified by area of residence
Length of wait times and waiting lists for long-term care home placements
Socioeconomic inequality in long-term care use
Caregiving burden (e.g., among women)
Gender gaps in labour force participation (e.g., stratified by occupation categories)
Gender gap in income
Quality of life levels among people in need of long-term care and their families/caregivers

Government units regulate and oversee long-term care provision standards and practices as well as administrative capacity to ensure a high-level of quality

SAMPLE INDICATORS

Number/percentage of patients/residents and families/caregivers reporting consistency and continuity of care
Number/percentage of government units that collect and analyze systematically disaggregated data on health, social, and financial outcomes related to long-term care services
Number/percentage of government units that produce periodic data analysis reports with updated and disaggregated findings on health, social, and financial outcomes among recipients of long-term care services
Number/percentage of government units that present evidence-based recommendations, defining steps for improvements in long-term care services quality, options, accessibility, and equity
Number/percentage of government units that conduct standardized and periodic on-site quality evaluations and health inspections
Number/periodicity of health inspections (e.g., stratified by type of facility or service)
People’s perceived difficulty in accessing findings from quality assessments of services
Patient/resident staffing ratios
Number/percentage of long-term care services meeting safety and quality standards
Number/percentage of preventable accidents (e.g., falls) and health issues (e.g., urinary tract infections) among patients/residents
Number/percentage of facilities and services that are held accountable for poor quality of care (e.g., stratified by type of facility or service)

Government units regulate and oversee private, for-profit long-term care facilities to ensure affordability and high-quality of services. Government units hold private, for-profit facilities accountable for investing public funds in better care while diminishing profits

SAMPLE INDICATORS

Financial inequities between users of private, for-profit long-term care services and users of public non-profit (no-cost or affordable) long-term care services
Health inequalities between users of private, for-profit long-term care services and users of public non-profit (no-cost or affordable) long-term care services
Mortality and hospitalization rates at private, for-profit long-term care facilities
Patient/resident staffing ratios at private, for-profit long-term care facilities
Trends in dispensing antipsychotic medications at private, for-profit long-term care facilities
Average monthly fees for private, for-profit facilities