Well-being in long-term care: an ode to vulnerability

Quality of life (QoL) has become a central focus of institutional long-term care (de Boer et al., 2011; Moniz-Cook et al., 2008). However, genuinely contributing to the QoL of a frail person is complex. People needing long-term care have lost personal resources for maintaining QoL and often, for instance, in dementia, increasingly need help from others to maintain QoL. This requires carers to consider individual needs and preferences of frail persons that may change over time and vary between specific situations.