A grant of $1 million has been given to Brown University’s School of Public Health to seek new ways to help improve the long term care system in the United States.

Improving Long Term Care in the US

As legislators, policymakers, and industry experts work together to find ways to create meaningful reform within the nation’s long term care system, this center joins the ranks of those looking for beneficial changes that can be made both within government policy and the management of long term care facilities. The grant was awarded to the school by the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living and is designated for the creation of a long term care center.

The center will be called the Long Term Care Quality and Innovation Center and will be housed in the Centers for Gerontology and Healthcare Research at Brown. The director of the center will be Vincent Mor, a professor of health services, policy, and practice at the school. Mor and colleagues have already done significant research into the area of long term care and methods that can be used to better the quality of care being disseminated across the country. The purpose of the center is to research and test best practices that can aid in improving long term care across the country and in the future, help develop training programs for use at skilled nursing facilities and other long term care settings.

Although the school was awarded a grant, the long term care center is designed to be self-sustaining after 3-5 years. The $1 million grant is meant to be used over the course of 3 years, after which the long term care center is expected to stand on its own, hopefully by means of other outside funding. A board made up of five people, including people entrenched in the long term care system and individuals from Brown, is responsible for governing the center.

Widespread Need for Change

“A major goal of our research and teaching is to improve the quality of care, and therefore the quality of life, for our nation’s elderly and post-acute populations,” said Vincent Mor in an AHCA press release. “We look forward to working with AHCA and NCAL’s support to discover, evaluate, advance and apply practices that could benefit millions of people and their loved ones.”

The need for long term care is rapidly increasing and demands attention before the financial cost of that care begins to overwhelm the current Medicaid system, which carries much of the burden at the current time. According to the SCAN Foundation, the number of Americans who need long term care is expected to hit 27 million by 2050, up from 12 million in 2012. Too few people are aware of this risk, though, meaning few are preparing at all. This adds to the growing concern about the financial role it will play in government spending in the future.

Preparing for long term care entails developing a strategy of how you will cover the cost of care should you ever need it and implementing that strategy when you are still young and healthy. Read more about planning for the risk of long term care today.