The developed world's population is aging, due to trends of increased life expectancies and decreased fertility rates. These trends are predicted to increase demand on long-term care services. At the same time, the long-term care workforce is in shortage in most of the developed world. Moreover, such shortages are expected to increase due to parallel socio-demographic factors. The increase in demand for longterm care, coupled with shortage in supply of care workers, has promoted some attention from policymakers. The current paper provides an international review of institutional arrangements for long-term care in different developed countries and in particular explores different strategies used or proposed to resolve the shortage in the long-term care workforce.

Populations are expected to age rapidly in the Arab countries during the coming few decades. However, the current evidence base indicates that many countries in the region are not paying attention to this demographic phenomenon. This is a particular concern as longevity is often accompanied by many years of ill health and disability and most of the countries in the region continue to rely on the family as the primary source of elder care. While the family, and particularly women, are expected to provide increasing support for longer, they are faced by a set of socio-demographic changes that may hinder their ability to provide such care. This paper focuses on the ageing demographics in the Arab region and reflects on the multiple-roles for women by utilising quantitative analysis of international population and socio-economic indicators as well as reviewing the background literature and current ageing policies in the region. The paper then discusses possible strategies to address increasing long-term care needs through a social capital lens, where support to informal carers particularly women is emphasised.

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Knowledge of the social care workforce is relevant to care quality and should be borne in mind when planning interventions and commissioning services.