Reform of long-term care in Greece

Greece has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in Europe. It has a long-established public system for providing long-term care to citizens, but the three publicly funded long-term care programmes that are most prominent at community level (KAPI, KIFI and Help at Home) do not provide high-quality care equitably and sustainably for all those in need. The main burden of care continues to fall on family carers, a disproportionate share of whom are women, which affects their work, leisure and welfare overall. Moreover, there is no coordination with non-state providers (private and NGOs), who are already operating in all segments of the aged care market, and insufficient regulation on the quality of care. In line with the European Care Strategy of the European Commission and the Council Recommendation on access to affordable high-quality care, Greece is drawing up an Action Plan to ameliorate access to affordable and high-quality long-term care. The work undertaken by the project will inform Greece’s Action Plan.

The technical support will be delivered through a status quo analysis, assessing the current governance framework for long-term care, tools used for needs assessment, level of benefits and services provided, and current standards and frameworks in place for providers of long-term care. It will provide, among others, (i) a recommendation on the needs assessment of people in need of care, (ii) an overview of means to assure quality of long-term care providers, (iii) an understanding of the implications of different eligibility criteria. The support will draw on: information gathered through exchanges and questionnaires with the relevant stakeholders in Greece across different governance levels, collection and analysis of Greek and international data, and identification of examples and best practices from other OECD member countries.

The technical support in long-term care is expected to support the Greek authorities in designing and adequately introducing a new person-centred approach in relation to quality long-term care services and thus contribute to the ongoing reform on increasing access to more inclusive social services in Greece. Ultimately, the expected long-term effect of this project is improved access to high quality long-term care services at home and at community level in Greece.