LTCcovid Country Profiles
Responses to 4.13. Any other relevant Long-Term Care reforms
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.
Poland
Although in 2021 there are no major reforms planned to increase coherency of LTC sector, various efforts have been made over the past few years to strengthen LTC services in Poland. Since 2018, a programme ‘Care 75+’ (Opieka 75+) has been in place, supporting local authorities in rural areas and small towns financially to provide care services (rural areas and small towns are particularly prone to population ageing due to migration and have informal care deficits). In 2018, a complementary programme ‘Care services for people with disabilities’ (Uslugi opiekuncze dla osób niepelnosprawnych), targeting people with disabilities under the age of 75 was introduced. Moreover, in 2019 a cash benefit was introduced for adults incapable of living independently. The benefit of PLN 500 (around EUR 119) is targeted at individuals with lower incomes, as a support measure in need for LTC. A definition of incapability to live independently with a new assessment for this purpose was implemented. Local governments have also also planning to organise meals on wheels for older people or targeted social assistance benefits for acquiring meals (Posilek w domu i w szkole na lata 2019–2023) (source: Long-term care report – Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu).
Moreover, in the aftermath of pandemic, the promotion of digital technologies has become one of the priority areas of the Activity+ programme, which was established in 2021 and is aimed at stimulating the social participation of older people (source: Ageing policies – access to services in different Member States (europa.eu).
Last updated: November 18th, 2021 Contributors: Joanna Marczak | Agnieszka Sowa-Kofta |
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.