BRIDGING POLICY AND RESEARCH IN ELDER CARE

A new paradigm for continuing care policy has emerged that is based on assumptions about the benefits of caring partnerships and client-cent red care delivery. Such assumptions place the interface between formal and informal care squarely on the policy agenda. The authors describe how existing research can contribute to the debate stimulated by the new policy paradigm and suggest future research that is informed by th e paradigm. They argue that theory is an important tool to make policy agendas more explicit and they use human ecology theory to illustrate how theory can frame the development of research to address policy. F inally, they describe barriers to be overcome in order for policy and research to inform one another.