Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care:
An international study of promising practices
– and related projects
(2010-2020) Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care: An international study of promising practices sought to identify promising practices for thinking about, planning and organizing long-term residential care that allow residents and their care providers to flourish and be treated with dignity and respect.
Residential care facilities are home to some of the most vulnerable citizens and the workplace for paid and unpaid providers, most of whom are women and many from racialized communities. How we treat this vulnerable population and their care providers is a critical indicator of our approach to equity and social justice, as well as to care.
“A society that treats its most vulnerable members with compassion is a more just and caring society for all”
– World Health Organization
The research was divided into four overlapping areas – Approaches to Care, Work Organization, Accountability, and Financing and Ownership – to deal with the complexity in long-term residential care.
Our international interdisciplinary team, led by Dr. Pat Armstrong at York University, included academics from Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Germany and Norway. It included academics from sociology, medicine, social work, history, media studies, philosophy, architecture, health policy and more. Graduate students were included as full team members.
Partners in the research were representatives from workers’ unions, employer associations, and community organizations representing older people.
Others interested in long-term care supported the research team by providing information and feedback, attending community consultations and sharing resources.
Ongoing Related Projects
Learning from the pandemic? Planning for a long-term care labour force
Covid-19, families and long-term residential care
Changing Places, Unpaid work in public spaces
These projects are supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.