Articles

The Future of Ageing and Long-Term Care in Switzerland: Federalism, Workforce, Technology and Sustainable Community Care

Switzerland is entering a period in which ageing policy can no longer be separated from workforce, housing, prevention, financing and digital transformation. This article examines how federalism, community-based care, the...

Planning Long-Term Care Capacity to 2040: What Switzerland’s Ageing Population Will Require

Switzerland’s ageing population will require substantially more long-term care capacity by 2040, but capacity cannot be planned simply by adding nursing-home beds. This article examines how cantons and municipalities need...

The Future Financing of Long-Term Care in Switzerland: Affordability, Equity and Reform

Switzerland’s long-term care system combines compulsory health insurance, cantonal and municipal funding, household contributions and social-security support, but demographic ageing will increase pressure across every part of that settlement. This...

Can Switzerland Shift More Long-Term Care From Institutions to the Community?

Switzerland is already supporting more older people at home through Spitex, family care and increasingly complex community services, but demographic growth will test how far this model can expand. This...

Assistive Technology and Smart Care in Switzerland: Supporting Independence at Home

Assistive technology is becoming increasingly important as Switzerland seeks to support more older people safely and independently at home. From emergency call systems and medication support to sensors, remote monitoring...

Digital Health and Long-Term Care in Switzerland: Building a More Connected Care System

Switzerland’s long-term care system is becoming increasingly digital, but information still sits across hospitals, medical practices, Spitex organisations, nursing homes, pharmacies and separate administrative systems. This article examines how DigiSanté,...

Measuring Outcomes and Quality of Life in Switzerland’s Long-Term Care System

Switzerland is strengthening the way long-term care quality is measured, with national nursing-home indicators, public reporting, new quality infrastructure and a developing programme for Spitex. Yet clinical indicators cannot show...

Infection Prevention and Control in Swiss Nursing Homes: From Pandemic Lessons to the NOSO Strategy

Infection prevention in Swiss nursing homes is moving from fragmented local practice towards a more structured national framework through the NOSO Strategy and its 2025–2029 action plan. This article examines...

Quality and Safety in Swiss Long-Term Care: Governance, Standards and Accountability

Quality in Swiss long-term care is governed through a layered system involving federal health-insurance law, cantonal oversight, provider responsibilities and increasingly visible national quality data. This article examines how quality...

International Recruitment and Migrant Labour in Switzerland’s Older People’s Care Workforce

Internationally trained and migrant workers are deeply embedded in Switzerland’s health and long-term care workforce, but reliance on cross-border labour raises questions about recognition, language, retention, ethics and long-term sustainability....

The Nursing Workforce in Swiss Long-Term Care: Skills, Roles and the Care Initiative

Switzerland’s long-term care system increasingly depends on nurses working across Spitex, nursing homes and community pathways with greater autonomy, broader clinical judgement and more complex responsibilities. This article examines how...

Switzerland’s Long-Term Care Workforce Challenge: Recruitment, Retention and Rising Demand

Switzerland’s ageing population is increasing demand for nursing, personal care and support across Spitex and nursing homes at the same time as providers compete for a limited professional workforce. This...

Healthy Ageing and Prevention in Switzerland: Extending Independence and Reducing Care Dependency

Healthy ageing in Switzerland increasingly means helping people preserve function, autonomy and quality of life while living with chronic illness, rather than attempting to prevent ageing itself. This article examines...

Preventing Loneliness and Social Isolation in Later Life in Switzerland

Loneliness in later life is not simply a matter of living alone. In Switzerland it is shaped by health, bereavement, mobility, income, migration, housing, transport and the strength of local...

Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Older People in Switzerland

Palliative care in Switzerland increasingly needs to reach older people wherever they live, not only those receiving specialist hospital treatment. This article examines how cantons, hospitals, primary care, Spitex, nursing...

Frailty, Multimorbidity and Complex Needs in Switzerland’s Ageing Population

Older people with frailty and several chronic conditions expose the boundaries between Switzerland’s healthcare and long-term care systems. This article examines how primary care, hospitals, Spitex, rehabilitation, nursing homes, families...

Supporting People With Dementia in Switzerland: Diagnosis, Community Care and Specialist Support

Dementia support in Switzerland extends far beyond diagnosis, connecting primary and specialist healthcare with Spitex, cantonal and municipal services, family care, day support, respite and nursing homes. This article examines...

Family Caregiving in Switzerland: The Hidden Workforce Supporting Long-Term Care

Family members provide a substantial share of the support that enables older people in Switzerland to remain at home, often alongside Spitex, medical care and community services. This article examines...

Integrated Care for Older People in Switzerland: Connecting Hospitals, Primary Care, Spitex and Long-Term Care

Older people with multimorbidity may depend simultaneously on GPs, specialists, hospitals, pharmacies, Spitex, therapists, family carers and long-term care services. Switzerland’s challenge is not creating one national organisation to control...

Intermediate Care, Rehabilitation and Care Transitions in Switzerland

Moving from a Swiss hospital back home, into rehabilitation or towards longer-term support involves more than arranging a discharge date. It requires decisions about recovery potential, nursing need, financing, Spitex...

Choosing Between Home Care and Residential Care in Switzerland: Needs, Costs and Family Circumstances

For older people in Switzerland, the choice between remaining at home and moving into residential long-term care is rarely determined by health need alone. It is shaped by Spitex availability,...

Nursing Homes in Switzerland: Capacity, Care Needs and the Changing Residential Care Model

Swiss nursing homes are caring for an increasingly older and more dependent population while demographic change, workforce constraints and rising costs place pressure on future capacity. This article examines how...

Ageing at Home in Switzerland: Housing, Community Support and the Limits of Home-Based Care

Ageing at home is a major direction of Swiss long-term care policy, but remaining in one’s own home depends on far more than access to Spitex nursing. Housing design, affordability,...

Spitex and Home Care in Switzerland: Supporting Older People to Remain Independent

Spitex is central to Switzerland’s strategy for supporting older people outside institutional care, combining nursing, assessment, coordination and wider home-based assistance within a decentralised cantonal system. This article examines how...

Why Long-Term Care Differs Across Switzerland: Understanding Cantonal and Municipal Variation

Long-term care in Switzerland is governed through common federal rules but delivered through markedly different cantonal and municipal systems. This article examines why use of Spitex, nursing homes, residual financing,...

Accessing Long-Term Care in Switzerland: Assessment, Eligibility and Routes Into Support

Access to long-term care in Switzerland is not determined by a single national eligibility test. Older people move into support through medical assessment, Spitex needs assessment, nursing-home evaluation, cantonal and...

Financing Long-Term Care in Switzerland: Health Insurance, Public Funding and Household Contributions

Swiss long-term care is financed through a deliberately mixed model in which compulsory health insurance covers only part of recognised nursing care, cantons and municipalities meet residual responsibilities, and individuals...

Who Is Responsible for Older People’s Care in Switzerland? Federalism, Cantons and Local Delivery

Responsibility for older people’s care in Switzerland is deliberately distributed across the Confederation, 26 cantons, municipalities, insurers, professional services and families. This article examines how Swiss federalism shapes planning, access,...

How Long-Term Care Works in Switzerland: Cantons, Municipalities, Insurers, Providers and Families

Switzerland’s long-term care system is shaped by shared responsibility rather than a single national service. This article explains how the Confederation, cantons, municipalities, compulsory health insurers, Spitex organisations, nursing homes,...

Ageing in Switzerland: Preparing for Rapid Growth in the Older Population

Switzerland is entering a prolonged period of demographic ageing that will reshape demand for home care, nursing homes, family support, workforce capacity and public financing. This article examines how ageing...