Conceptualizing Needs When Allocating Public Long-Term Care Services in the Welfare State

Abstract

The chapter explores and discusses the concept and phenomenon of needs within public long-term care services. A shift from primarily thinking of the welfare state as a safety net securing basic needs to considering it as a “trampoline,” not only catching people but bouncing them up and back to an active life, is identified. This shift challenges the welfare state’s ethos “… to each according to his or her needs” with its traditional emphasis on service provision, protection, and securing of vital needs.