Enhancing Quality of Life in Long-Term Care: Social, Psychological, and Technological Innovations

Long-term care (LTC) settings serve a growing population of older adults with complex medical, cognitive, and psychosocial needs. Despite advances in clinical care, quality of life (QoL) in LTC remains a persistent concern, often impacted by social isolation, limited autonomy, and unmet psychological needs. Recent research highlights the potential of multidisciplinary innovations—including social interventions, psychological supports, and emerging technologies—to address these gaps. As the LTC landscape evolves, there is an urgent need to identify and evaluate strategies that move beyond traditional care models to promote well-being, dignity, and person-centered care.

Despite the increasing emphasis on person-centered care, long-term care (LTC) settings continue to struggle with translating this philosophy into practice, resulting in persistent deficits in residents’ quality of life. Social isolation, under-addressed mental health needs, and limited meaningful engagement remain common, especially among residents with cognitive impairment. To address these challenges, recent advances in psychosocial interventions, therapeutic technologies (e.g., socially assistive robots, virtual reality), and staff training models offer promising avenues. This Research Topic aims to explore and evaluate integrative strategies—spanning social, psychological, and technological domains—that can be implemented in LTC settings to enhance resident well-being, staff satisfaction, and overall care quality.

This Research Topic invites original research, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, brief reports, and implementation studies that examine innovative approaches to improving quality of life in long-term care settings. We welcome contributions from interdisciplinary teams, including but not limited to social work, nursing, gerontology, psychology, health informatics, healthcare engineering, health technology, and medical research.

Specific themes include:

• Social innovations: interventions to reduce loneliness and enhance social connectedness; family engagement models; community partnerships.
• Psychological supports: mental health interventions; trauma-informed care; staff training to address behavioral and emotional needs.
• Technological innovations: use of assistive or socially responsive technologies (e.g., robots, VR, AI-based tools) to support cognitive, emotional, or social functioning.
• Care process improvements: models that integrate psychosocial and technological approaches into routine care workflows.
• Cultural and contextual considerations: approaches tailored to diverse populations or international care contexts.
• Implementation science perspectives: studies examining adoption, feasibility, and sustainability of innovative interventions in real-world LTC settings.

Keywords: Long-Term Care, Quality of Life, Psychosocial Interventions, Health Technology, Aging, Innovation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.