ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the first attempts to frame and explain the advances of long-term care (LTC) by constructing ‘care regimes’ as clusters of countries with specific characteristics and approaches to tackle the challenges of LTC. Based on these deliberations, it examines the idiosyncratic categories that need to be considered for constructing ‘ideal types’ of LTC regimes from a global perspective. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, LTC is the care for people needing support in many facets of living over a prolonged period of time. Typically, this refers to help with so-called activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, and getting in and out of bed, which are often performed by family, friends and lower-skilled caregivers or nurses. The ideal-typical rights-oriented LTC regime gather countries where individual rights to LTC have been defined politically and legally, with related institutional and financial underpinnings such as an LTC Insurance and/or tax-funded provisions.
