Adelina Comas-Herrera

Adelina Comas-Herrera is the director of the new Global Observatory of Long-Term Care based at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics. She is currently principal investigator of a project on what lessons the English social care system can learn from the COVID experiences of other countries, and one strengthening responses to dementia in England, with a specific focus on care inequalitites.

During the COVID pandemic she led the LTCcovid.org platform, an initiative linked to International Long-Term Care Policy Network that shares evidence and resources to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 amongst those who use and provide long-term care. She was a regular attendee of the SAGE Social Care Working Group meetings from May 2021.

Previously she was co-lead of the Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE) project. Funded by the Research Councils UK Global Challenges Research Fund, STRiDE was a multi-national project covering Brazil, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, and South Africa. The project aimed to build capacity to generate research that supports the development of policy responses to dementia, with related projects also under way in Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Her main research interests are economic aspects of care, treatment and support of people with dementia, and long-term care financing, both in the UK and globally. She has extensive experience in developing simulation models of the future resources required to address long-term care needs and needs arising from dementia.

She has a background in Economics (BA and MSc, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and is currently Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

She has been a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank’s ageing and long-term care programme and for the World Health Organisation’s Department of Ageing and Life Course, preparing a country self-assessment tool for long-term care. She was a co-author of the 2016 and 2019 editions of the World Alzheimer Report.