LTCcovid Country Profiles

Responses to 4.12. Reforms to strengthen and guarantee the rights and voice of people who use and provide care

The LTCcovid International Living report is a “wiki-style” report addressing 68 questions on characteristics of Long-Term Care (LTC) systems, impacts of COVID-19 on LTC, measures adopted to mitigate these impacts and new reforms countries are adopting to address structural problems in LTC systems and to improved preparedness for future events. It was compiled and updated voluntarily by experts on LTC all over the world. Members of the Social Care COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery project moderated the entries and edited as needed. It was updated regularly until the end of 2022.

The report can be read by question/topic (below) or by country: COVID-19 and Long-Term Care country profiles.

To cite this report (please note the date in which it was consulted as the contents changes over time):

Comas-Herrera A, Marczak J, Byrd W, Lorenz-Dant K, Patel D, Pharoah D (eds.) and LTCcovid contributors.  (2022) LTCcovid International living report on COVID-19 and Long-Term Care. LTCcovid, Care Policy & Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. https://doi.org/10.21953/lse.mlre15e0u6s6

Copyright is with the LTCCovid and Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, LSE.

 

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 proposes an expanded Residents’ Bill of Rights which includes a right to ongoing and safe support by caregivers and a right to be provided with care and services based on a palliative care philosophy (source: Bill 37, Providing More Care, Protecting Seniors, and Building More Beds Act, 2021).

Last updated: December 10th, 2021

In November 30th 2020, an official document recognised, for the first time, the right to the social and emotional support from family and friends for people who live in care homes.

Source:

Bolcato M, Trabucco Aurilio M, Di Mizio G, Piccioni A, Feola A, Bonsignore A, Tettamanti C, Ciliberti R, Rodriguez D, Aprile A. The Difficult Balance between Ensuring the Right of Nursing Home Residents to Communication and Their Safety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(5):2484. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052484

Last updated: November 23rd, 2021   Contributors: Adelina Comas-Herrera  |  

The right of care home residents to receive residents has been formally recognised by the Norwegian Directorate of Health.

Last updated: November 29th, 2021

On June 1, 2020, The Health and Social Care (Quality and Engagement) (Wales) Act became law. The Welsh Government is now working to bring the Act into force in spring 2023. This Act will strengthen the voice of citizens, by replacing Community Health Councils with a new all-Wales Citizen Voice Body that will represent the interests of people across health and social care. The aims of this new body are to:

  1. Strengthen the citizen voice in Wales in matters related to both health and social services, ensuring that citizens have an effective mechanism for ensuring that their views are heard.
  2. Ensure that individuals are supported with advice and assistance when making a complaint in relation to their care. se the service user experience to drive forward improvement.
  3. Use the service user experience to drive forward improvement.

This new organisation will be established as a national body but it will be structured in such a way as to enable it to perform its functions at a national, regional and local level (Source: https://gov.wales/health-and-social-care-quality-and-engagement-wales-act-summary-html).

Last updated: March 28th, 2022

Contributors to the LTCcovid Living International Report, so far:

Elisa Aguzzoli, Liat Ayalon, David Bell, Shuli Brammli-Greenberg, Erica Breuer, Jorge Browne Salas, Jenni Burton, William Byrd, Sara Charlesworth, Adelina Comas-Herrera, Natasha Curry, Gemma Drou, Stefanie Ettelt, Maria-Aurora Fenech, Thomas Fischer, Nerina Girasol, Chris Hatton, Kerstin Hämel, Nina Hemmings, David Henderson, Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith, Iva Holmerova, Stefania Ilinca, Hongsoo Kim, Margrieta Langins, Shoshana Lauter, Kai Leichsenring, Elizabeth Lemmon, Klara Lorenz-Dant, Lee-Fay Low, Joanna Marczak, Elisabetta Notarnicola, Cian O’Donovan, Camille Oung, Disha Patel, Martina Paulikova, Eleonora Perobelli, Daisy Pharoah, Stacey Rand, Tine Rostgaard, Olafur H. Samuelsson, Maximilien Salcher-Konrad, Benjamin Schlaepfer, Cheng Shi, Cassandra Simmons, Andrea E. Schmidt, Agnieszka Sowa-Kofta, Wendy Taylor, Thordis Hulda Tomasdottir, Sharona Tsadok-Rosenbluth, Sara Ulla Diez, Lisa van Tol, Patrick Alexander Wachholz, Jae Yoon Yi, Jessica J. Yu

This report has built on previous LTCcovid country reports and is supported by the Social Care COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery project, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (NIHR202333) and by the International Long-Term Care Policy Network and the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders.