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Long-Term Care

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More than 12 million Americans depend on long-term care for help with everyday activities such as bathing or dressing. This group includes veterans and people with disabilities, but it is primarily comprised of seniors. Thus, the number will likely soar as the baby boom generation ages. RAND research on long-term care can help health providers and policymakers meet the growing demand for high-quality, affordable care.

Report

Family Caregivers Should Be Integrated into the Health Care Team

Jan 5, 2021

The pandemic has produced changes in health care practices, such as shorter hospital stays and more frequent management of chronic illnesses at home. This has shifted the responsibility for many medical tasks to family caregivers. Caregivers have become frontline workers and should be treated as members of the health care team.
Report

Long-Term Care Policy: Who Should Be at the Table?

Feb 2, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored that long-term care residents, their families, and staff have limited representation when it comes to facility policies. Recognizing them as stakeholders with perspectives to include in decisionmaking could improve infection control practices and also address residents' health-related quality of life.

Explore Long-Term Care

Commentary

Rescue Plan Help for Family Caregivers Is a First Step

Unpaid caregivers have been a critical part of the functioning U.S. economy, serving as the backbone of the health system, since long before the pandemic started. Adding them to the American Rescue Plan was an important step, but even after the pandemic is over, their financial security will need long-term protection.

Apr 5, 2021
Essay

Giving Family Caregivers a Voice

One in every five American adults is caring for a loved one in need. Too often, they have to fight to make their voices heard in a health care system that doesn't always see them as the partners in care they can be. More could be done to integrate them into patients' health care teams.

Mar 10, 2021
Report

Home Care Workers Are Essential Yet Undervalued

Home health and personal care aides are socially isolated and at heightened risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journaling is a promising way to give them a voice and reduce stress and anxiety. But policy-level changes are needed to address the issues of low wages and minimal benefits.

Feb 3, 2021
Journal Article

Do Income Supplemental Programs for Older Adults' Help Reduce Primary Caregiver Burden? Evidence from Mexico

This article analyzes the effects of a supplemental income program for older adults on primary caregiver burden, in Yucatan, Mexico.

Dec 15, 2020
News Release

Efforts Needed to Expand Ability of Family Members to Integrate into Formal Health Care Teams

Integrating family caregivers into a patient's health care team can help improve care quality and the quality of life for both patients and their families, yet family caregivers face significant barriers coordinating their efforts with the formal health care team.

Nov 10, 2020
Journal Article

Factors Explaining State Differences in Applying for a Recent Long-Term Care Program That Promotes Aging in Place: Perspectives of Medicaid Administrators

This article examines the reasons underlying states' decisions regarding their applications to the Balancing Incentive Program.

Aug 4, 2020
Blog

COVID-19's Effects on Mental Health, Food Access, and Education: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on COVID-19 and mental health, food security challenges during the pandemic, supporting children while schools are closed, and more.

Apr 3, 2020
Commentary

Should You Consider Taking a Loved One Out of a Long-Term Care Facility?

As modern living is changing during this pandemic, so is assisted living. Already, many of us are facing difficult decisions about whether someone we know should stay in an assisted living facility or be taken out due to the coronavirus crisis. If you're in the position to bring someone to hunker down with you, is it even a good idea?

Mar 30, 2020
Commentary

Recognizing Family Caregivers as Part of the Health Care Team

Recent shifts in health care practices have left family caregivers increasingly responsible for medical tasks. Given family caregivers' central role in medical care, there are efforts underway to improve family caregiver integration into the health care team, but there are barriers to effective integration and engagement.

Nov 18, 2019
Dissertation

Understanding Home and Community-Based Long-Term Services and Supports: An Evaluation of Medicaid's Balancing Incentive Program

Explores home and community-based services as a way to curb long-term services and supports spending growth through an evaluation of Medicaid's most recent rebalancing effort -- the Balancing Incentive Program.

Sep 24, 2019
Brochure

Struggling with Dementia

The costs of dementia -- economic and personal -- are staggering. A recent RAND analysis quantifies the scope of the problem in the United States and serves as a wake-up call to policymakers everywhere.

Sep 9, 2019
News Release

Average American's Risk of Needing Nursing Home Care Is Higher Than Previously Estimated

The average American's lifetime risk of using a nursing home is substantially greater than previous research has suggested. Among persons age 57 to 61, 56 percent will stay in a nursing home at least one night during their lifetime.

Aug 28, 2017
Report

Improving Support for Military and Veteran Caregivers: A Research Blueprint

Millions of Americans provide informal care and support to current and former U.S. service members. A new research blueprint could help inform efforts to improve support for these “hidden heroes.”

Jun 14, 2017
Journal Article

Informal Caregiving for Dementia in the U.S.

Family members play a critical role in caring for older adults with and without dementia. In 2010, 5.5 million U.S. adults age 70 and older received informal care, including 3.6 million with cognitive impairment or dementia.

Oct 20, 2015
Commentary

Demographics Add Urgency for Action on Dementia Long-Term Care

Dementia takes a huge toll on those afflicted with it but also has major consequences for those who must care for them. More than 15 million Americans provide care for loved ones with dementia—tending to their daily, routine needs and ensuring their medical needs are met.

Jul 28, 2014
Report

Improving Dementia Long-Term Care: A Policy Blueprint

As millions of Americans struggle to help loved ones with dementia, policymakers should consider more ways to improve long-term services and supports for the soaring number of people with the debilitating condition and their caregivers.

Jun 23, 2014
Report

Hidden Heroes: America's Military Caregivers

There are 5.5 million military caregivers across the United States, with nearly 20 percent caring for someone who served since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Military caregivers experience more health problems, face greater strains in family relationships, and have more workplace issues than noncaregivers. Changes are needed to both provide assistance to caregivers and to help them make plans for the future.

Mar 31, 2014
Journal Article

Transforming Nurse Home Culture: Evidence for Practice and Policy

The nursing home culture change movement aims to improve resident quality of life and quality of care by emphasizing the deinstitutionalization of nursing home culture and focusing on person-centered care.

Feb 1, 2014

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