The elements of a conceptual scheme for long-term care (LTC) were developed based on two lines of thought. The first, more practical, borrows from planning. The second, which is more theoretical, reflects sociological action theories. Planning is defined as an action that targets the development of a plan. Using values, desires, resources and constraints as a starting point, operational objectives are defined and means chosen. Planning focuses on four themes: (1) establishment of priorities, (2) setting up organizations in the form of agencies, (3) choosing objectives and (4) defining resources. These four themes are analyzed in turn, with each producing four elements defining a total of 16 themes, dilemmas, problems or issues specific to LTC. The relationships between these elements, which are by definition prescriptive, form the core of our proposal for an LTC planning model.

The elements of a conceptual scheme for long-term care (LTC) were developed based on two lines of thought. The first, more practical, borrows from planning. The second, which is more theoretical, reflects sociological action theories. Planning is defined as an action that targets the development of a plan. Using values, desires, resources and constraints as a starting point, operational objectives are defined and means chosen. Planning focuses on four themes: (1) establishment of priorities, (2) setting up organizations in the form of agencies, (3) choosing objectives and (4) defining resources. These four themes are analyzed in turn, with each producing four elements defining a total of 16 themes, dilemmas, problems or issues specific to LTC. The relationships between these elements, which are by definition prescriptive, form the core of our proposal for an LTC planning model.

Planning of long-term care (LTC) focusses on four themes: (1) developing priorities to reflect values; (2) setting up human service organizations governed by a set of rules and procedures; (3) choosing objectives to which participants and organizations are committed; (4) mobilizing resources. A conceptual scheme for LTC planning could draw on each of these four structural elements. But they might prove to be a set of separate concepts only linked to each other intuitively, unless they are linked through action processes. The total number of reciprocal relationships between the four planning elements is 12. We have therefore identified 12 different action processes to be examined whenever LTC planning is undertaken. These processes allow information from the four structural elements to circulate between them. For example, priority, organization and objectives are sources of information when choosing criteria for the allocation of resources. Thus the processes form bridges between the planning elements. These bridges must be used whenever planning is undertaken in order to ensure that all the elements are given equal weight. Whichever planning element is used as a starting point for LTC planning, the process knits the structural elements together into a whole. Using our conceptual scheme as a guide, planners can cover the whole field of LTC that it represents.