Acceptance of nontraditional institutional long-term care for the daycare users in Taiwan

Purpose: This study is to explore the factors in developing nontraditional institutional long-term care (assisted living, unit care, and group homes) in Taiwan, from both the views of experts and potential users. Methods: Expert's view was collected by in-depth interviews with five experts in long-term care. The questions included the status quo and barriers of long-term care in Taiwan, the appropriateness of nontraditional long-term care, and suggestions for future development. Laymen's view was collected from 117 daycare users by self-written questionnaire with the assistance of the interviewees. The independent variables were health autonomy (disability), informational autonomy, living autonomy (flexible schedule and privacy) and financial autonomy (disposable income, subjective sufficiency, willingness to buy long-term care/medical insurance). Controlling variables included demographics and family support. Logistic regression was applied for analysis. Results: The experts commented on three dimensions of long-term care policy: the ambiguous policy direction, inadequacy of long-term care financing, and the need of human resources in long-term care industry. Only less than half of the daycare participants accepted non-traditional long-term care (45.2% to 47.0%). Financial autonomy was related to acceptance of nontraditional long-term care. Higher information autonomy was related to acceptance of respite care or living in a group home. Besides, those without children were more likely to accept assisted living, and higher educated people were much more likely to accept living in a group home. Discussion: Accessibility to long-term care may be the main barrier for potential clients. Implications for providers and policy makers will be discussed.