Long-term care
WHO recognizes long-term care services as an essential part of an integrated continuum of care and crucial to achieving universal health coverage, within the context of population ageing. Investment in integrated and person-centered health and long-term care services that respond to the diverse needs and preferences of people experiencing declines in functional ability is necessary to reach the Sustainable Development Goal 3 – “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”.
In 2016, the World Health Assembly agreed that every country needs an equitable and sustainable long-term care system that can adequately meet the care and support needs of their populations. The same call to action has been echoed in the WHO Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health and the WHO-led United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030), which recognizes access to long-term care for older people who need it, as one of its four action areas.
To aid countries working to develop and strengthen their long-term care systems, WHO Europe provides technical support for the development, implementation and monitoring of relevant policies and services; and designs tools and guidance for improving the financing, organization, delivery and quality of long-term care services and systems.
These efforts focus on national health and long-term care or social protection systems, as well as responses to emergencies, to ensure a coordinated and sustainable approach to service delivery and the availability of long-term care services to anyone who needs them. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on older people, particularly those living in residential care settings, WHO has published tools and guidance on preventing and managing COVID-19 across long-term care services, as well as strengthening infection prevention and control in long-term care facilities.
WHO Europe has also redoubled efforts to create platforms for knowledge exchange and learning between and within member states, with a view to supporting innovation and sharing good practices in long-term care systems. WHO Europe is a strategic partner of the European Commission in the implementation of the European Care Strategy, working with regional, national and local partners to strengthen assessment and monitoring of long-term care systems, and supporting the design and implementation of reforms to improve access to affordable high-quality long-term care.