Long Term services and supports for older persons with disability. An exploratory ana­ lysis from a scoping review

Abstract

The number of older people, including those with disabilities, has increased substantially in most countries and it will accelerate in the next decades (UN, 2022: OMS, 2022). Among this population, experts have established a distinction between two different phenomena (Verbrugge, Yang 2002): disability with aging (DWA, elderly incurring into impairments) and aging with disability (AWD, elderly who incurred into impairments during the developmental age). AWD has peculiar needs (Putnam & Bigby, 2021; Koon et al., 2020) calling for redefining long‐term services and supports (LTSS) bridging aging and disability (Putnam, 2007). The paper presents the results of a scoping review (Arskey, O’Malley, 2005; Levac et al., 2010) aiming at exploring the current state of the art of existing LTSS initiatives and mapping projects, solutions, strategies and interventions used to address AWD needs. Despite the confirmed paucity of studies dedicated specifically to AWD and focused on LTSS, findings from the analysis of the 54 selected papers contribute to build scientific evidence where it is lacking and to support evidence‐based integrated, multicomponent, and crossing long‐term solutions to meet the mounting challenges of population AWD.