This book focuses on the full spectrum of long-term care settings ranging from family and community based care through supportive housing options to a variety of institutional long-term care alternatives. Integrating theory and practice, the book features the perspectives of diverse fields regarding current long-term care options and new directions for the future. The book is organized in five parts: the context of long-term care, community-based long-term care, transitional long-term care, facility-based long-term care, and contemporary issues in long-term care. It describes ethical considerations in the provision of long-term care and decision-making in long-term care. It also explains fluidity and transitions in long-term care. The book further presents case studies as exemplars of three very different long-term care situations: a fairly typical family-supported trajectory of community-based care, the care of a person with Down syndrome, and the story of an increasingly common scenario of caregiving from a distance. The three vignettes provide a context for defining long-term care, explanation of the demographic processes that have resulted in the current situation of demand for long-term care, and description of the general characteristics of persons requiring long-term care and those who care for them.
