Longer lives with long-term care needs: Research needed to tackle the care gap

This chapter provides an updated overview of the emerging issues in long-term care (LTC) for older people. Based on recent developments in related policies at international level, the challenge of matching increasing LTC needs with the response from formal and informal care providers, as well as from society (volunteers, caring communities), is addressed by adopting a cross-national perspective and considering the lessons learnt from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The main purpose of this chapter is to detect research gaps to formulate suggestions for key priorities and research questions for a forward-looking research agenda, keeping in mind the methodological issues identified in this area by international frameworks provided by UNECE, WHO, European Commission and other supranational initiatives in this field. This is achieved by first addressing the ‘demand’ side of LTC, and then the ‘supply’ side, including all interconnections between formal and informal care, in a societal context.