Panorama of Aging and Long Term Care

Panorama of Aging and Long-term Care

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Countries

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Latin America and the Caribbean are aging faster than any other region in the world. This trend is driving a sharp rise in the number of older people who need help with activities of daily living. However, most countries in the region offer very limited or no care services for this aging demographic. Families—and especially women—usually step in to fill the gap.

At the Inter-American Development Bank, we view long-term care services as a crucial component of current and future social protection systems, so in 2018 we created this web portal, the Panorama of Aging and Long-Term Care. Here you will find technical information on how to design and implement long-term care systems.

Why A Long-Term Care System?

Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean: Social protection and quality of life of older persons analyzes the quality of life of older people in the region and its relationship to the coverage, quality, and sustainability of social protection in the form of pensions, healthcare and long-term care.
Age with Care: Long-term Care in Latin America and the Caribbean makes the case that long-term care systems should be a priority in the region, and analyzes the steps needed to build them.
Four Elements for designing a Long-term Care System (Spanish only) discusses the importance of defining the target population of support services, the services to be included, how to ensure quality, and how the system will be financed.
Long-Term Care in Latin America and the Caribbean?: Theory and Policy Considerations analyzes the pros and cons of providing services versus cash transfers to support families with long-term care needs.

Target Population

Prevalence of care dependence among older persons in 26 Latin American and the Caribbean estimates the number of people who currently need long-term care in 26 countries in the region. It also provides projections up until 2050.
The use of scales to assess functionality and care dependency in the elderly: practices, advances, and future directions (Spanish only) discusses how instruments for assessing functional dependence are being developed and implemented in the region, identifying areas for improvement.
Panorama of aging and long-term care in Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish only) estimates the percentage of older people who are care dependent in selected countries of the region, as well as the correlation between care dependence and chronic diseases.
Data associated with Panorama of Aging and Long-Term Care in America Latina and the Caribbean.

Long-Term Care Services

Cash and Counseling: Self-directed home and community long-term care.
Telecare: technological innovations for remote care analyzes the characteristics, prices, and benefits of telecare services in Latin America and the world, as well as the challenges and operational steps for implementing them.
Personal support services for people with functional dependence: background, characteristics, and results (Spanish only) explores the trends and characteristics of home care services in Latin America and the world, as well as their benefits for people experiencing care dependence, their caregivers, and the health and social services system.
Home care support services: Advances and challenges for dependency care in Costa Rica (Spanish only) focus on the potential of home care services as part of a long-term care system.
Fragility of old-age care institutions in the face of Covid-19: Lessons learned and recommendations for service reform (Spanish only) examines the fragility of long-term care institutions and services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the measures certain countries took to protect older people’s health.
Programa Maior Cuidado: An Integrated Community-Based Intervention on Care for Older People presents an overview of a novel community-based intervention for older people living in deprived neighborhoods in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

Human Resources

Estimation of human resource needed for long-term care of older persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Spanish only). (Download the tool, Spanish only, to make your own estimates). Estimates the number of long-term care workers needed in the region in 2020, 2035 and 2050. It calculates that, in 2020, the region requires approximately 5 million long-term care workers (without considering informal/family/unpaid caregivers). This figure increases to almost 9 million by 2035 and more than 14 million in 2050. At the same time, the need for rehabilitation professionals increases from 2 million in 2020 to more than 6 million in 2050.
Caring for Caregivers: The Landscape of Paid Care Work in Latin America and the Caribbean. It estimates that there are approximately 8.9 million paid caregivers in the region, including 5.8 million paid workers who take care of children and 3.1 million who look after older people and people with disabilities. Most professionals in the sector are women in their early forties with a secondary-level education and with limited access to social protection benefits.

Quality Of Care

Toward the Professionalization of Caregivers: Training and Skills Needed for Long-Term Care. Analyzes and compares caregiver training policies in the region, proposing four curricula based on best practices.

Funding

Funding options for long-term care services in Latin America and the Caribbean estimate the potential cost of four packages of long-term care services with different levels of coverage for 17 countries in the region and assess the feasibility of various financing mechanisms.
Cost Simulation Tool for Long-Term Care Systems: An Application to Latin America and the Caribbean (learn more in this video and download the tool) presents a flexible tool for estimating the cost of different benefit packages in long-term care systems.
Simulations of the cost of a long-term care system for care-dependent older adults in Mexico (Spanish only) estimate the cost of a system of long-term care services in Mexico.

Care As An Investment

The Silver Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Aging as an Opportunity for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Inclusion discusses the concept of the silver economy, which refers to the demand for goods and services, as well as entrepreneurship, among older people. The publication explores key silver economy trends observed in the region.
Working Less to Take Care of Parents?: Labor Market Effects of Family Long-Term Care in Latin America estimates the proportion of family long-term care provided by women in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. It also estimates the labor market consequences of this care responsibility in Mexico.
Silver Economy: A Mapping of Actors and Trends in Latin America and the Caribbean maps 245 actors whose products or services are intended for older people. Four out of ten of these actors operate in the health and care sectors.

Case Studies