Abstract
Increases in longevity in Europe come with additional years in good health (in the “third age”, up to the age of 80/85 years) and additional years in poor health (in the “fourth age”, above the age of 80/85 years). As the number of older people in need of care has increased over the last decades in Europe, there is an increasing need for elder care. In Europe, both family carers and professionals in community and institutional care take over important tasks of elder care. A variety of topics are debated in research and policy contexts. In this presentation, I will present a selection of current European research streams (e.g. relationship between family and professional care, quality of long-term care, recruitment and education of elder care workforce) and European policy debates on these topics.