Examining Some International Trends in Long-Term Care Services Policy for the Elderly

Globally, national policies regarding long-term care are a mixture of “embedded” policies and trans-national trends. Health and related long-term care policies are “embedded” in situations that are unique to specific countries. The specific contexts of such policies include many aspects such as demographic characteristics, socio-cultural factors, governmental organization and political circumstances. These factors create existential limits to choices to some extent that are termed “path dependency” or “sunken costs.” Such path dependency shapes the trajectory of emerging health and related long-term care policies.