Long-Term Care in Central and South-Eastern Europe

ERSTE Bank der österreichischen Sparkassen

BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
Long-term care for frail elderly people has long been a rather ‘hidden’ social risk. Close family members have been, and still are, the most important providers of care work. Though there is an increasing recognition of long-term care, approaches still vary widely across the continent. There are large variations in the perception of public and private responsibilities and there is a wide spectrum of policies and activities. While in Western European countries research on long-term care has been intensified, the situation in Eastern and South-Eastern European countries is almost unknown in the international literature. And even within countries, basic information on long-term care is rare.

OBJECTIVES
The main task of the project lies in the systematic collection, presentation and comparative analysis of information on long-term care. It is the objective to provide a general comparative overview of the respective systems in these countries, to work out similarities and differences with regard to challenges, systems design, policies, actors and recent trends, and to identify novel and promising developments and responses by specific actors in the field. The study will be published in a report/book and in several journal articles.

ORGANISATION
The following countries will be covered in the research: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. A review of the literature and international databases by the project team forms the starting point for the research in the eight countries. The collection of information on and the analysis of long-term care in the respective countries will be undertaken in close collaboration with country experts. In the comparative analysis, differences, similarities and novel developments will be studied in the broader European context.