The project produced a background paper for an AARP conference on long term care. Ensuring adequate care for the elderly citizens is a key element in the social fabric and the approach to long-term care for the elderly and the disabled is a significant and highly visible feature of the system of social protection in any country. It is also the area of social protection in which substantial differences persist, with most long-term care provided by specialised institutions in notably the Nordic countries and the Netherlands and by informal family care in the Mediterranean countries and the New Member States.
The following issues will be tackled: Promoting Independence: Receiving Care at Home and in the Community; Guaranteeing Quality Long-Term Care; Ensuring Sustainable Financing of Long-Term Care Systems.